


Doppelgänger

by MiracAlice (AliceTheBookGirl)



Series: Funhouse Mirrors [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Actually the normal locations too, All at the same time, Because I like it that way, Because this story is my shame, Central Original Akuma, Established Relationship, Excessive Effort for Puns, F/M, Gen, I'm not sure yet, Identity Reveal, Ignorable Plot Holes, Kids are 17-18 for age reference, Maybe angst, Minimal Proof Reading, Most likely Season 2 Spoilers, Names of famous Paris locations are in French, Neither will these tags, Not gonna tell you which those are, Overarching Plot buried deep under all the self-indulgence, Parallel Universes, Posting as I write it, Pre-Relationship, Probably Crack, Probably canon-compliant until S2E10, Quotes as chapter titles, Rated T for Sexually Active and Non-Active Horny Teens, This story will actually never end, Tropes I want to see, Vague Fight Scenes, pop culture references, post-reveal, pre-reveal, probably fluff, probably humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-06 14:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13413132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceTheBookGirl/pseuds/MiracAlice
Summary: Ladybug and Chat Noir stared at them in shock. Marinette and Adrien stared right back.“You think the cat’s out of the bag for them yet?” Adrien whispered to his girlfriend. Her response was to pinch him.The superheroes only continued to stare.(In which our heroes and all of Paris are introduced to a whole new world.)





	1. "It is never twins, Watson."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote from Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (2017)

“ _Akuma Alert. Akuma Alert._ ”

Several phones went off in the classroom, interrupting Caline Bustier from her lecture.

She waited patiently as most of her students quickly turned their alarms off and effectively cut off the robotic chimes. At the same time, two students in the front row nearest the door silently excused themselves, receiving a small nod from Caline before running out. Once the remaining teens put their phones away and settled down, the instructor resumed her lesson.

***

“Damn! This one is even trickier to _spot_ than the Vanisher was!”

And the akuma villain was. Self-proclaiming themselves to be called Doppelgänger, the villain’s entire form was featureless, composed of a seamless smooth material with a flawlessly reflective surface. Even their face was shaped like that of a mannequin. In certain locations, the villain was easy to spot when the reflections did not match their background. But once Doppelgänger surrounded themselves with, say, foliage from the trees in the park, it became exponentially more difficult to locate them.

Most of the day had passed in which Paris’ heroes had to resign themselves to playing hide-and-seek with Doppelgänger, and eventually the sun began to set and the city became filled with lights. Whenever the akuma escaped into the distance, they used the bright city to their advantage and practically became one of the thousands of twinkling lights.

Ladybug and Chat Noir had tried waiting for the akuma to come to them, but this villain was smarter than most, instead avoiding the two and wreaking havoc in other sections of the city. Ladybug and Chat Noir could no longer stand around idly when they heard that the akuma had already made victims of a few citizens, some of them being their own classmates. After school was over, Alya had run to the location that the akuma was last spotted and took clear footage of their powers which she posted immediately to the Ladyblog. Chat brought up the video on his baton during one of their breathers and the heroes were puzzled by what exactly the akuma was doing.

“ _Ugh. Even as a mirror, you're useless. My face on_ that _body?”_ A scoffing “ _Oh please_ ” was the last thing they heard before the akuma tightened their grip and forced their victim to pass through their body where she vanished, the akuma silent the entire time. They heard Alya’s gasp from outside the camera’s view before the video ended. Ladybug and Chat weren’t too worried about her since she had yet to be caught by Doppelgänger (“ _You can say it’s..._ miraculous. _” “Oh, shut up, Kitten.”_ ), judging by the endless stream of live tweets from the Ladyblog’s Twitter account.

Ladybug sighed. “That girl is way too fearless these days.”

Her partner snickered from beside her. “You know Chloe, finding new ways to be a _royal_ pain.”

“And we really only need one _scaredy cat_ in Paris, right?”

“Oh, hah hah, you're hilarious. That was one time!”

Ladybug flicked Chat’s bell as she replied, “It only takes one time for me to make fun of you.” Her voice then turned serious. “This akuma is taking too long to catch. Tikki and Plagg will be exhausted by holding the transformations for so long. Not only that, but we don't know if… _absorbing_ …people is making the akuma stronger.”

“Lucky Charm, then?”

He received a nod as his partner threw her yo-yo up to the sky. “Lucky Charm!”

Just as Ladybug was about to catch the item, Chat Noir caught an odd shift out of the corner of his eye and before he could fully comprehend what it was, he was pushing his partner out of the way. They hit the ground rolling before stopping a few meters away, Ladybug on top of Chat. They immediately looked to where they had been standing and saw their own reflections staring back at them.

Chat grimaced. “Two of them. We should really _reflect_ on how we jinxed ourselves.”

Quickly shooting off from the ground, Ladybug spun her yo-yo in defense when her mirror image leapt at her. “They have my Lucky Charm!” To remind her how bad the situation had gotten, her earrings began to beep, signalling the countdown to her transformation.

“Cataclysm!”

And the same was about to start for Chat.

Ladybug continued to fend off her opponent, but she began to second guess her perception when she realized that her reflection did not cover the akuma’s entire body, so she couldn't get used to the moving background. It was more than a little unnerving.

It was only fitting that she would slip up and run into Chat, allowing their foes to swoop down on them like vengeful angels just as the their transformations dropped.

Marinette glared at her own panicked face before she briefly glimpsed Ladybug’s face, which was the last thing she saw before the world around her grew muddled and distorted before becoming pitch black.

_What was that? Did I become Ladybug again?_

She felt the sensation of sinking through water that only lasted for mere seconds before it was gone and she found herself stumbling onto asphalt and the world was bright once more.

“What is with this akuma?!” she heard her partner yell in frustration beside her.

Marinette sighed in relief when she looked over at Adrien, thankful that he was alright.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” she said ruefully.

A resounding clang snapped their attention behind them and Marinette widened her eyes at what she saw.

 _So_ that's _it. Figures._

Standing slack-jawed and with arms hanging limply by their sides were Ladybug and Chat Noir, their weapons lying on the ground.

Marinette felt Adrien shift slightly beside her and she knew exactly what was coming next, assuming he came to the same conclusion that she did.

“You think the cat’s out of the bag for them yet?” he whispered, not nearly quiet enough that the heroes in front of them couldn't hear, judging by the twitching of Chat Noir’s cat ears.

Marinette couldn't believe the lack of tact her boyfriend had and promptly pinched him in the side. Hard.

Listening with satisfaction as Adrien yelped and clutched his side, Marinette stood up and cautiously approached the unresponsive duo, ready to put her improvisation skills to work.

“Ah, Ladybug!” She clasped her hands together and put on a confused expression. “I’m not sure what happened, but one second I was on the other side of Paris, and now I’m here.” She wasn’t exactly _lying_. "There’s not an akuma, is there?”

Shaken from her state of shock, Ladybug briefly glanced at Chat, probably hoping he didn't think anything weird about seeing Marinette, and answered her.

“Uh, yes, there was. But it disappeared before you two suddenly popped out of nowhere a few minutes later.” Ladybug stepped toward Marinette with only a small amount of hesitation. “I can take you home while Chat Noir takes care of A-Adrien.” It took 110% effort on Marinette’s part to keep a straight face.

“Yes. Totally. Let’s do it.”

The two suited heroes went aside to discuss something briefly with each other and Marinette took the time to check on Adrien.

“It might just be me, but are those two really oblivious?”

Adrien tapped his chin as he gazed thoughtfully at his counterpart. “Judging by her stutter and his jerky movements…” He nodded to himself. “Oh yeah, definitely.”

“Aw, poor children,” Marinette giggled.

“If you’re ready, we can leave now.”

Marinette and Adrien turned to see Ladybug staring at them oddly, as if she couldn’t figure out what she was looking at. Deciding to ignore it, Marinette gave Adrien a quick but tight hug as she whispered in his ear that she’d see him later, to which he replied in kind. Moments later, the two girls were swinging away, leaving their partners on the ground to gaze after them smittenly.

However, Adrien was the first to recover enough to look teasingly at Chat Noir.

“So…did the cat get the cream yet?”

His response was a strangled choke.

“I—wha—c-could you—why—I—”

Adrien laughed sympathetically. “Relax, man, relax. I’m just kidding. You’ve got it bad for her, but I can tell you haven’t really gotten anywhere with her. How long’s it been?”

Chat’s face became a flustered pink under his mask and ignored the question, instead narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the other boy. “Who exactly are you anyway? I mean, you’re obviously me, but, are you from the future like the Ladybug from the Timebreaker accident?”

Putting on an innocent face, Adrien said, “How do you know I’m not your long lost twin, Felix Agreste?”

“What? I have a twin brother?!”

Adrien face palmed. “No. I was kidding. Besides, don’t you know that it’s never twins in real life? I’m actually you from a parallel universe.”

Chat’s face melded into a look of consternation. “Because that’s more believable than us being brothers separated from birth.”

“Honest to god.” Adrien sighed. “What is our life?”

Chat didn’t have an answer, but his ring began to beep as if Plagg would offer something helpful. Though speaking of…

Patting the front of his jacket, Adrien felt a small triangular lump which he knew to be a slice of camembert, but he felt nothing else. Adrien froze.

_Where did my kwami go?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote most of this at a different point in time but finished the rest of it today during class. I'm a productive person, right?
> 
> Anyway, please leave a comment to let this piece of trash know how you like/hate her story so far.
> 
> Have a great day!


	2. “Knowing the mouse might one day leave its hole and get the cheese… It fills you with determination.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, the author struggles with getting past the boring stuff while trying to maintain a plot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote from Undertale.

Ladybug and Chat Noir met up half an hour later atop the Arc de Triomphe, both bearing urgent news.

“I ran into my own copy on the way to taking Adrien home,” Chat began, his face uncharacteristically serious. “It seems he’s from another world, like a parallel dimension. That’s probably where all those random people came from, too.”

All throughout the day, as Ladybug and Chat were chasing down the annoyingly elusive akuma, a handful of people had appeared out of thin air here and there, stumbling into the heroes’ paths, not unlike Marinette and Adrien had earlier. It had more than thrown Chat off balance when Nino acted completely familiar with him after he had caught the boy, who was previously flying through the air towards the ground.

( _“Damn, bro, that was one hell of a trip. I dunno what happened, but try not to get caught by that akuma!”_ ) Nino had then proceeded to lightly punch Chat in the shoulder in a “Bro” sort of way before hightailing it out of the vicinity. Chat had been left very confused.

At least it all—well, _partially_ made sense now.

“That’s what I found out from my counterpart when I saw her,” Ladybug replied. She crossed her arms as she made a list of what they needed to do from this point on. “The akuma has disappeared and we have no idea where they are or where to even start looking. We suddenly have an entire group of people who shouldn’t exist here that we have to deal with. Call up Mayor Bourgeois after I finish so we can make an announcement.”

Chat gave a two-fingered salute to show his compliance to the order.

“What’s the most worrying right now is that the other Ma—Ladybug is missing her kwami and we don’t know where she could be. And since the other Chat isn’t here, I’m guessing he doesn’t have his kwami either?”

Ear drooping, Chat gave a nod. “I was hoping she at least had hers. Now it’s more likely to be a bigger _cat_ astrophe than I thought.”

“This isn’t the time to be spouting puns, Chaton!”

“Sorry, My Lady, had to lighten the mood somehow.”

Crossing her arms, Ladybug sighed. “Well, while you're practicing being a terrible comedian, I'm trying to figure out a way for communication to work. The other Ladybug and Chat can't communicate with their weapons now but I was thinking it'd help if we got them some cheap cell phones.”

Chat perked up. “You can leave that to me!”

“Alright. Before we go, there's one last thing…” Ladybug bit her lip, unsure how her partner would respond to what she was about to say. She hardened her resolve though, when he placed a hand on her shoulder in reassurance.

“The other Ladybug, she and her Chat Noir know each other’s identities…and she wants to use my kwami to meet with him.”

***

“Thanks again for letting me do this,” Ladybug said with heartfelt sincerity to Marinette. “I knew I was already asking for so much for wanting to borrow Tikki, especially when I've been separated from my Tikki for barely an hour. It's like a part of me is missing.”

Marinette shook her head and smiled understandingly. “No, I totally get it. You want to find her as soon as you can and this is the best way. Just be sure to kick Akuma butt for me if any appear!” She held her fist out to the other girl.

Ladybug bumped Marinette's fist with her own and replied, “You betcha!” before leaping onto Marinette's bed and out the balcony hatch, leaving the normal girl in the silence of her room.

***

_“—advised that all universe travelers check in with an official at Hôtel de Ville as soon as they are able to receive essentials and support. Universe travelers are also asked to wear Ladybug or Chat Noir scarves to help distinguish themselves…”_

The monotonous voice on the TV faded as Adrien turned the volume low, nodding in satisfaction that Mayor Bourgeois had done as he and Ladybug said. With all the extra people wandering around Paris and Doppelgänger nowhere to be found, this would hopefully ease the citizens’ worries about potential “copycats” innocently and unknowingly living their lives for them. The biggest flaw with this plan was whether there would be people who ignored the announcement or didn't see it at all, but Ladybug could only tell him that they needed to be extra vigilant about this matter. Plus, they'll have an extra pair of heroes to help them out. Which brought his attention to something else.

Adrien's “twin” was awfully quiet, and had been since Adrien arrived back in his bedroom after parting ways with Ladybug. When he looked to the other boy, something in him began to hurt. It was like looking in a mirror and seeing the sad lonely boy he really was under all the polite smiles and camera flashes.

He walked over to where AU!Adrien (so Adrien reads fanfiction and knows how tags work, don't judge him!) sat at his desk, staring forlornly at something in his hand, presumably a pendant based on how the object was connected to a thin red cord around the boy's neck. Craning his neck to try and see what it was, he asked, “What is that?”

The other boy didn’t visibly react, but he answered in a distracted voice. “It’s a kwagatama.” He lifted his hand and let the black shape dangle from his fingers.

“Kwagatama? You mean magatama?”

AU!Adrien absently shook his head, tucking the pendant under his shirt, the entire necklace effectively out of sight under the Ladybug-printed scarf. “No, I mean kwagatama. It’s shaped like a magatama, but it—”

“Came from a kwami.”

Both boys turned their heads to the black blob nonchalantly eating a piece of cheese twice its size.

Adrien watched as his twin gave Plagg a gentle smile. “Yeah. Plagg— _my_ Plagg, he gave it to me for the first birthday I had since I got my Miraculous ring. I made fun of him for having feelings all of a sudden but he claims it’s because Tikki would’ve pestered him about it, considering she gave one to Ladybug for her birthday, too. But I know you, Plagg. You eat so much cheese you’re practically made out of it, but there’s a heart buried under all the smell.”

Sniffing haughtily, Plagg scoffed. “As long as the heart is also made of cheese, believe what you want.”

The two boys rolled their eyes at the unsurprising response, though Adrien immediately backtracked to something that was said earlier. “Wait, so you and Ladybug have matching…kwagatamas?”

Well, seeing the starry-eyed look on what was basically his own face totally answered his question, but it also made him embarrassed that he also made that face when thinking about Ladybug. Didn’t mean he would stop doing it though.

“Yes! It’s like a symbol that we’re soulmates, isn’t it?” He was interrupted by a soft thump from Adrien’s open window. “Ah, speak of the goddess and she will come.”

A tinkling giggle grabbed Adrien’s attention as he turned around to see Ladybug leaping from the high window, causing his face to grow warm at the thought of the spotted heroine’s presence gracing his bedroom in what was probably the fourth time ever. But wait! This time she even knew who he was: the awe-inspiring suave hero, Chat Noir! Nothing could spoil the euphoria he was feeling, he thought, as Ladybug strolled toward him in that hip-swaying confident way that never failed to get his heart racing, only to bypass him to hug the still sitting boy.

Oh. Right. This was AU!Ladybug.

…Well that was awkward. Thankfully, it seemed only Plagg was aware of what was going on through Adrien’s mind as the tiny god just smirked at him. Adrien silently threatened to take all his cheese and gift it as a cheese platter to Nino for International Friendship Day. By the way Plagg’s smug face morphed into a glare, he got the hint.

While the boy and his kwami were quietly antagonizing each other, the AU pair had been busy doing some hug-and-whisper-probably-sweet-nothings-in-each-other’s-ears thing that made Adrien more than a little jealous. Fortunately for him, they didn’t do it for long, and Ladybug pulled back to address everyone at once.

“I want to discuss some things with both Tikki and Plagg, so I’d have to detransform. Adrien, would it be alright if uh, Adrien and I went to another room for that?” She stumbled a bit with her words and splayed her hands out in front of herself. “Uh! But I understand if that’s too much for you! Maybe Adrien can borrow Plagg like I’m borrowing Tikki and we can go elsewhere. If that’s better for you, I mean.”

“Only if the kid gives me that delectable smelling camembert he’s got hidden in his shirt,” Plagg piped up.

AU!Adrien seemed hesitant to agree. “I uh, was hoping to hold onto this piece for my Plagg.”

Seeing Ladybug comfortingly place a hand on AU!Adrien’s arm and give him a warm smile was more than enough for Adrien at the moment. “You guys can stay here and talk I’ll just chill over there bye!” he blurted, rushing to his bathroom and slamming the door closed, not giving the others the chance to refuse.

“Poor guy,” came the much unneeded comment, muffled by the door.

A small _thump_ followed by an exaggerated “Ow!” told Adrien that Ladybug must’ve rightfully punched his twin.

“Spots off.”

“Hello, Plagg.”

“Tikki.”

Adrien heard light footsteps approach the bathroom door and he tensed, not knowing what to expect. “Adrien,” Ladybug’s soft civilian voice called. “I know there’s a physical hindrance between us right now, but we would love it if you’d talk with us, if you want. You know, bring in your ideas to the table.”

Swallowing dryly, Adrien was touched that Ladybug, even from another world, would be so understanding and inclusive. “Okay,” he managed to say.

And just like that, the discomfort from before faded away as Adrien discussed possible theories with Ladybug, asked questions of the kwamis, and argued with himself (literally) until they all came to the most feasible conclusion an hour later.

“So I get that the other Plagg and Tikki were probably left behind in the other universe,” Adrien reiterated, “but why exactly were there two Ladybugs during the Timebreaker akuma then?”

“That was a case of time travel,” Tikki answered patiently. “Think of time as a continuous line. The qualities of a kwami on that timeline is the same, no matter where on the line they are. A parallel universe would be equal to a parallel line. Those two timelines will never cross, therefore kwamis from different parallel universes will never be in the same place or time. It would simply break the very foundation of existence.”

AU!Ladybug breathed out heavily. “That sounds like some intense stuff.”

Tikki hummed. “Of course, it’s merely conjecture, but I do have thousands of years of knowledge to back it up.”

“If Max were here, he’d give us some high probability on how likely that theory is true,” AU!Adrien added.

“Hm, and the reason our Miraculouses still work with you guys…”

“The Miraculous are conduits for a kwami’s power.” This time Plagg responded to Ladybug. “If you’ve talked with Master Fu, he would tell you that kwamis are representations of abstract ideas. Like creation and destruction.”

“It’s like everything is starting to make sense when certain someones start explaining things,” Adrien sarcastically dug at his kwami.

The others laughed as Plagg huffed and flew through the bathroom door to roll around in Adrien’s hair, mussing it and leaving a cheese smell in it. “Ugh, Plagg, you annoying shit!”

Once the laughter, which had started anew at Adrien’s complaints, died down, they all concluded that they talked through all the more pressing matters and the rest could be left when the other Ladybug was present.

Ladybug transformed back and Adrien emerged from the bathroom, watching as she swung her yo-yo out the window to catch the end of it on a nearby building.

“Tikki and I will catch the other me up on everything. Have a good night, boys!” And with that, she was gone.

“So about that cheese…”

Adrien looked on as his twin ran around the room trying to get away from Plagg while protectively holding a camembert slice close to himself.

“I told you already! It’s for the other Plagg!”

Adrien smiled. It looked like Plagg finally had someone else to annoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have scenes played out in my head, some of which I've written down somewhere. All this setup is quite tedious, but I'll be getting to the fun(?) nonsense soon.
> 
> You can see I'm lazy and lack creativity when I can't distinguish between characters other than using AU!Character. Please let me know if there's a better way to do it.
> 
> Also, hope you enjoyed the semi-Ladrien that went on here. Believe it or not, it's the bottom corner of the Love Square for me, if you rotated the square so it made a diamond. Meanwhile, LadyNoir is one of the two "middle" corners. If that made any sense. #geometry
> 
> Thanks for sticking with the story so far, even though it's only been two chapters. It's entertaining to write when I'm bored and procrastinating on homework.


	3. “My girlfriend became my arch enemy, my arch enemy became my best friend, and my best friend became my girlfriend.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many more revelations, most of it really vague, but it moves the meager plot along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote from Sky High (2005).

“This is for you.”

Marinette gaped at the box that AU!Adrien (psh, it's not like she overheard Adrien calling AU!Adrien that and decided to copy him!) presented to AU!Marinette (though she had to admit, it made things less confusing to use it). It wasn't wrapped so she could see the cover with no problem, and if AU!Marinette was getting what the box showed, then she just received a brand new spanking iPhone.

AU!Marinette raised an eyebrow. “What's this for?”

“It’s a replacement phone for while we’re here. I already put in my own new phone number. I also made sure to get you an iPhone 7 Plus instead of a—”

“Instead of an iPhone X,” AU!Marinette interrupted, blowing out an exasperated breath, “so I wouldn’t feel needlessly spoiled by you, you beautiful boy. It was a nice attempt.” She ruffled AU!Adrien’s hair, causing him to bow his head and scrunch his face cutely.

Marinette swore she died and was given new life simultaneously. She didn’t even realize when Adrien stepped beside her to join in on gawking at the scene in front of them.

Removing a light pink covered phone and turning it on, AU!Marinette went to read the name of her only contact. “Model Boyhavior.” She snorted. “So what’s my name on your phone?”

Slipping a matching light green phone from his pocket and waving it in front of her, AU!Adrien cheekily told her, “Because you’re the daughter of the sweetest bakers I know—”

“Don’t tell me—”

“—and you’re one _fine_ looking lady—”

“—just stop right now—”

“—I’ve dubbed you Croquembabe.”

AU!Marinette’s resounding groan drowned out Marinette’s embarrassed squawk and Adrien’s sharp intake of breath.

As the two AU!s walked away exchanging light banter, Marinette and Adrien simply watched them go into the school. “Wow,” Adrien sighed wistfully, “they’re really close friends, aren’t they?”

***

“Adrienette, my best buds!”

“Nino, my man!”

The classroom was a frenzy of loud chatter as it was revealed who in the class now had a twin from another dimension. Marinette watched on as Adrien embraced a Nino wearing a black and green scarf, the boys loudly declaring their love for one another in a supposedly manly way. Their hug was quickly joined by a Kim wearing a long and thin red and black polka dotted strip of cloth tied around his forehead, his arms long enough to wrap around the other two and suffocate them.

“Gross.”

Marinette side glanced at the short pink-haired girl beside her with a black and green bandana tied around her left bicep.

“C’mon, Alix, you know you wanna join in!” crooned Kim. Instead of the desired effect, the boys’ group hug was joined by the Other Kim, Nino, and tentative Adrien, all of them muttering words of Bro worship. Other Adrien even looked genuinely a little teary-eyed.

What a cinnamon roll, so unlike her own sinnamon puff.

“This is literally the weirdest shit I've ever seen,” came Alya from her seat, who sadly did not wear a scarf nor had a lookalike standing around. “And I've seen _everything_ at this point. Luckily for me, it'll make a good series of articles for my blog.”

“It is highly unlikely that you've seen everything the world has to offer, Alya,” said an un-scarfed Max.

“Not to include what _our_ world may hold as well,” continued a scarfed Max.

Rolling her eyes at how literal Max took everything, no matter which Max it was, Marinette approached Alya and Other Marinette, who was by then sitting in what must've been her own seat as she watched the gaggle of overdramatic boys.

“Hey, girl,” greeted the bespectacled best friend, “you must be AU!Marinette.”

Marinette smirked. “Actually, I'm Ladybug.”

A familiar arm wrapped around her waist, a chin comfortably settling on her shoulder. “That must make me Chat Noir, then.”

Alya burst out laughing, though her eyes were also wide with shock at seeing Adrien practically glued to a completely calm and coherent Marinette. Other Marinette fainted.

“Whoa, Marinette!”

“Are you okay?”

“Give her some space, people.”

The other boys had broken from their Bro bonding and had joined the rest of the class in fretting over the fallen girl.

“I’m okay!” Other Marinette shot up from the floor, hands raised up as she wobbled a bit when she stood up. “Really, I’m good.”

Everyone went to their seats (with the exception of the six people from the other world, who either stood around or found an empty seat) when they were reassured that Other Marinette was alright. Before Marinette could walk away however, she felt a tight grip on her arm. Other Marinette yanked her down and hissed in her ear, “We need to talk.”

Marinette grimaced, knowing exactly what the other girl meant. Perhaps she shouldn’t have said what she did. It certainly didn’t help that Adrien followed her lead so effortlessly. Other Marinette seemed to be really sensitive on the topic of her identity. Though they hadn’t talked about it much, Marinette knew that other than Tikki, her counterpart had no one else to confide in about her secret superhero persona.

A high-pitched shriek interrupted Marinette before she could apologize for her carelessness.

“Adrikins! What are you doing with that—that _trash_?!”

Marinette felt her boyfriend stiffen beside her in response, his arm squeezing her waist tightly. A look at his face showed her how offended he was. “Excuse me?”

The entire class’s attention was brought to Chloe Bourgeois standing petulantly at the front of the classroom, glaring at Marinette. Other Adrien, from his seat, raised his hands in a placating manner. “Hey, Chlo, you know how I feel about you insulting—”

“Your opinion of what is and isn’t trash further proves you have no taste whatsoever.”

His soft-spoken and polite voice was easily cut off by Chloe’s haughty one, but this time it came from the doorway. Marinette perked up.

Standing there in her glamorous confidence was Chloe Bourgeois, adorned with a white neckerchief with a single ladybug on the end tied around her neck. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun that was kept together by a simple jeweled hair comb. It didn’t take much to distinguish the differences between the Chloes. Even the rest of Chloe’s outfit contrasted greatly from Other Chloe, consisting of a loose pastel yellow blouse, white shorts with the initials M.D.C. stitched in tiny black lettering on one side, and tan sandals.

“This entire image is a disgrace to me,” Other Chloe exclaimed. “How could you even stand to wear clothes that aren’t designer fashion!”

Scoffing, Chloe strutted past Other Chloe and sat in the remaining front row seat, effectively leaving Other Chloe from sitting down. “This _is_ designer fashion. You just don’t know how big of a trend it is where I’m from.”

“Wow,” Marinette called from where she still stood. “Looking good as always, Chlo.”

Chloe turned and gave a smug, “Of course I am,” before crossing her arms and facing forward again.

“Oh. My. God. Chloe not getting along with herself?” Alya whispered. “Chloe and Marinette _getting_ along? What is this world coming to?”

“Silly Alya,” quipped Adrien. “It was _our_ world that came to yours.”

“Dude,” Other Nino drawled, unimpressed, “you’re Adrien from another universe, but you’re so _lame_.”

Nino threw an arm around his twin’s shoulders. “You get used to it, man.”

Pulling her arms together and squealing in excitement, Alya announced to the others, “We’re all hanging out after school so you guys can tell me everything about your world! No excuses!” She quickly added this part when Other Adrien looked ready to apologize. He did so anyway.

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I have fencing right after school and then I have to head straight home. My dad wanted to talk to me and, er, you.” He gestured to Adrien. “Something about getting more photoshoots done in half the time.”

Marinette winced slightly when she felt her boyfriend’s hand unconsciously grip tightly on her waist. She glanced at his frown and rubbed at his hand soothingly. She ignored Other Marinette’s unblinking stare.

“Sounds like he wants to use me, now that I’m conveniently here. I’m not going.” The four Others reacted in shock at Adrien’s words.

“What?” Other Adrien exclaimed. “But, but he’s our father! I mean, not _your_ father, but he’s mine, so technically yours…?”

“Doesn’t make a difference to me,” Adrien replied stiffly. Before anyone could question him though, Madame Bustier entered the classroom and quickly organized the students around so that the doubled students could comfortably situate themselves. Marinette, Adrien, Nino, Kim, Max and Alix were given the empty tables in the back of the room while Chloe and Other Chloe sat on the left and right sides of Sabrina respectively, both of them too stubborn to be the one to move. Being two to three rows behind their counterparts, Marinette and Adrien didn’t have to deal with any pressing questions until lunch, allowing them to discuss their game plan via written notes throughout the class session.

All too soon however, and they found themselves being dragged by Alya to a secluded corner of the courtyard once the bell had rung. She plopped them down on a bench in front of her, Nino and Other Nino, Marinette and Adrien having trailed behind her.

She placed her hands on her hips. “Now then, you guys are going to explain exactly what is up with you and your world. And don’t think you’re getting off scot-free either.” She jabbed Nino in the chest. “How is it that you two are like best friends attached at the hip? Why is Marinette so chummy with Chloe? Since when did Adrien act out and rebel against his father, looking like he wants to punch him in the face?”

Alya was a true investigator, be it in this world or their own. Sighing, Marinette resigned herself to the interrogation. She gestured her pointed hands from one side to the other as she listed things out.

“It would take way too long to explain, so TLDR: my idol became by arch enemy, my arch enemy became one of my best friends, and one of my best friends became my boyfriend. Or something like that.”

Other Marinette’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Your idol…?”

Marinette stiffened in panic.

“Aw, babe, you think of Chloe as your best friend?” Adrien frantically interjected. “She’ll demand you design her so many more things when she hears that.”

Mentally sighing in relief for the escape, Marinette squeezed Adrien’s hand in thanks.

“No way!” Other Nino shouted. “You two are totally banging!”

Silence permeated the courtyard as everyone turned and stared.

Marinette remained tight-lipped, not knowing what the correct response was in this situation. Unfortunately, the boy beside her ruined all her effort with two half-hearted words.

“I mean…” He trailed off, shrugging.

Other Marinette fainted for the second time that day.

Marinette slapped her forehead and groaned.

***

“Why don’t you just face the facts and see that without your dear Daddy, you’re nothing but a spoiled brat. Oh wait, that’s just plain brat, because your Daddy wouldn’t be there to spoil you.”

Sabrina stood, unsure, from across the restroom mirrors, flicking her gaze back and forth between one Chloe and the other. She didn’t know what to do, it was all too much. It practically looked like there were four Chloes in front of her and so many meters of space between them, but with each insult the Chloe from the other world threw out, the smaller the room began to feel.

Chloe tried to fend for herself, but she was never good at talking back, always having the option to flip her hair and walk away. But this time was different. This time it was as if her own reflection was mocking her. Even if Chloe ran away, her own face wouldn’t let her forget the transgressions she’s had to endure.

So Sabrina was surprised when Chloe finally did stick up her nose and stiffly walk out of the restroom, but the door was still swinging shut as Sabrina heard the rapid footsteps that told her Chloe had run away.

Hearing a scoff, Sabrina turned to see AU!Chloe look away, not with satisfaction like she would have thought, but with a troubled look marring her features.

“Why did you say all that?” Sabrina timidly asked.

AU!Chloe said nothing for a few seconds before she answered softly, “She needed to hear it.”

Sabrina wanted to agree, but wasn’t sure of the way AU!Chloe went about it. It was too late now though, and Sabrina had a feeling she knew what was going to happen next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished up the chapter just now but didn't have time to read it over since I have work real soon. I'll fix everything up later today and add more notes here too. There's stuff I want to say, but I can't think of it right now.
> 
> Update: So I'm very proud of the contact names I gave for the AU!s', Model Boyhavior and Croquembabe. For those of you who don't know, croquembouche is a French pastry. Hopefully I didn't ruin the joke by explaining it. Then again, it IS a pun, so it's lame by default. Clever, but lame. 
> 
> I also hope canon and AU character distinguishing method isn't too confusing. Basically, when it's a canon character's POV, they'll think of the AU people as, well, AU!Character Name. When it's an AU character's POV, they'll think of the regular characters as the Other. I'll be doing my best to establish which character's POV it is when I start new scenes. Or I could just label them between scene breaks...hm...


	4. “Where. Is. My. Super. Suit?!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, some excitement! But first, an awkward and tense conversation. And then an awkward and tense Adrien throughout the whole chapter. Poor sunshine son.
> 
> There's also the presence of all corners of the love square. Technically. Some corners pull harder than others.
> 
> Oh, and plot holes were left in the creation of the plot road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote from The Incredibles (2004).

The car ride was silent.

It wasn’t that Adrien didn’t know what to say. More like, he had too much he wanted to say and didn’t know where to start. It made for an awkwardly pregnant silence. He glanced at the boy staring out the car window, chin in his hand and looking lost in thought.

“So…” Adrien tried, which at least successfully got the other boy’s attention. “You and Marinette, uh, do…stuff…?” Oh god, why was he so socially stunted? That was the worst conversation starter ever!

“Um…yeah, I guess?” AU!Adrien raised a confused eyebrow.

Adrien felt his face heat up. He couldn’t believe how unabashed this guy was, talking about—about _that_ so nonchalantly! “So, what, are you two like, friends with benefits or something?” he asked in an accusatory tone, shedding all decorum seeing as his counterpart wasn’t going to be prudish about it.

AU!Adrien’s eye widened in shock before his face morphed into an affronted look. “What? No! How did you even get to that conclusion? All I said was—” He paused, an expression of understanding suddenly overtaking his features. “Oh. By ‘stuff’ you were talking about sex?”

Burying his face in his hands, Adrien groaned. “Why is this so difficult? Why are you so shameless?”

“If you _were_ talking about sex, then yeah, we do it.” Adrien was slightly mollified to see a faint pink covering the other boy’s cheeks. “But I still don’t know why the first thing you asked was if we’re ‘friends with benefits.’”

This annoyed Adrien. Was it not clear enough? “Because you’re in love with Ladybug!”

“I am. What’s your point?”

“But you’re also in a relationship with Marinette?”

“Yeah, she’s my girlfriend.”

“But that’s not fair to her if you’re in love with someone else!”

Here AU!Adrien gave a secretive smile, one that irked Adrien to no end. “It’s completely fair to Marinette that I love her.”

“And Ladybug.”

AU!Adrien nodded, still wearing that aggravating smile.

Crossing his arms, Adrien looked out his own window, frowning. “How can you just love two people like that?” he muttered.

A chuckle sounded. “‘How,’ indeed.”

“Y’know,” a smaller voice piped up, “it’s not _wrong_ or anything to love more than one person.”

Both boys glanced surreptitiously past the car divider at the Gorilla, who didn’t show any signs of hearing anything out of the ordinary.

“Plagg’s right,” AU!Adrien said when the coast was still clear. “I love Ladybug and I love Marinette. I can’t force myself to feel any other way. The heart wants what it wants.”

“Did you just quote a Selena Gomez song?” Adrien deadpanned.

AU!Adrien shrugged. “I could quote Sailor Moon instead?”

“Yes, please.”

Unfortunately for the weeaboo boys, AU!Adrien never did get to use a Sailor Moon quote, for the car abruptly braked, the tires screeching in protest at the rapid stop. The boys were thrown forward by the momentum before they snapped back into their seats thanks to their seatbelts.

“Ugh, what the hell was that?!”

Shouting could be heard outside the car, along with running footsteps and car alarms.

“What else could it be but an akuma,” Adrien answered. He released his seatbelt and threw his door open. “C’mon! We gotta go, uh…” Momentarily forgetting that the Gorilla was also in the car, he faltered.

“Find somewhere safe to hide!” AU!Adrien finished for him. He flung his own door open and swiped Plagg from the air before leaping out of the car and running off.

“Hold on! Wait for me!” Before Adrien could go after them, he was snatched completely off the ground and carried in the opposite direction. “Hey, wait, Gorilla! We can’t just leave them!” Of all the times for his bodyguard to do his job right, it had to be when someone literally took his superpowers away.

Adrien groaned and resigned himself to a long day. Oh well, at least it postponed the meeting with his dad.

***

It took her a few seconds, but Ladybug realized there was something off about Chat when he landed on the roof beside her. Ignoring his greeting of “Yo” and a two finger salute, she leaned toward him and carefully scrutinized his face as if it held all the answers. And apparently, something about it did.

“Oh, no!” Ladybug wailed, throwing her hands to her face. “You’re AU!Chat, aren’t you?”

AU!Chat threw finger guns in her direction. “Right in one, Lady Luck.”

“Why did you transform and not the other Chat?” she asked him, then shook her head. “Never mind, we don’t have time for that. You can explain later. Right now, we have to deal with this akuma because she’s moving fast.”

AU!Chat got the message and put on a serious face. “Who is she? And what’s she done so far?”

“Surprisingly enough, it’s Chloe Bourgeois,” Ladybug revealed with a wry smile, “and she wraps some kind of cloth around the necks of the victims. Everyone who gets caught falls to the ground and they don’t move at all, like they’re frozen or have become dolls, eyes open and everything.”

“Hm.”

Ladybug paused from throwing her yo-yo, having been ready to chase after the akuma. She tilted her head at him. “You don’t seem all too concerned or even interested.”

The hero shrugged. “The akuma doesn’t sound too troublesome. I’ve dealt with worse.” At the hard look Ladybug gave him, AU!Chat quickly added, “I’ll still give it 110% though! You don’t have to worry about me!”

Not losing her suspicious gaze, Ladybug turned away and threw out her yo-yo and catching it on a building, pulling the string taut. “It’s more a matter of if I can trust you.” With that, she swung away.

***

Adrien really cursed his luck sometimes. It took way too long to get the Gorilla to set him down and then to shake the bodyguard off his tail when he ran away. Now he was stuck near Collège Françoise Dupont and last he heard, the akuma was somewhere on the Pont Alexandre III or the Pont au Change. Either way, the akuma was on a bridge and if AU!Adrien hadn’t taken Plagg with him, Adrien and Ladybug could have trapped the akuma and taken care of things by now. And without a super suit to give him extra strength and agility, it was going to take even longer to reach them.

So distracted by his silent complaints as Adrien was, he didn’t notice a person rounding the corner of the sidewalk in time to avoid crashing into them.

“Ow!”

“Oh my gosh Marinette I’m so sorry!”

Rubbing her bottom, Marinette looked up to Adrien scrambling to his feet and extending a hand to help her up. Getting a second look and _spotting_ (heh) her ladybug scarf and different clothing though, and Adrien realized that he had actually ran into AU!Marinette.

“Where are you running to? Shouldn’t you be with the other Marinette?” he questioned.

Accepting his hand and allowing him to pull her up, AU!Marinette gave Adrien an amused look. It was intriguing, being the recipient of Marinette’s headstrong sassiness for once, albeit from the wrong Marinette. He’d seen many times when his Marinette took charge and displayed unwavering courage and confidence and it was always captivating to watch. It was quite reminiscent of his spotted Lady. “I could ask you the same thing. I may be from a different world, but I’m pretty sure you’re running _away_ from your house. I’d expect it from my boyfriend before you.”

Ah, right. _That_ was a thing.

As the girl in front of him dusted herself off, Adrien took the time to really observe her and think back on what he remembered of her interactions with his twin. Did anything she do give away whether or not she knew about AU!Adrien’s “other love”? If she did, then Adrien completely missed it because she only showed herself to be happy and content. Did AU!Adrien love two girls because they were so similar they were practically the same person? Frowning, Adrien decided that was absolutely unfair to both AU!Marinette and AU!Ladybug.

“Are you okay?”

Adrien realized he was silently staring at her long enough for it to start being creepy. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Um, the other Adrien and I got separated when the akuma appeared. I thought he might have come this way.”

“Did you see Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

“No, but I heard that they’ve already appeared on scene.”

AU!Marinette gave a small knowing smile. To Adrien’s consternation, it was eerily similar to AU!Adrien’s smile from before. “I’m sure my Adrien is just fine then. We can always count on Paris’s heroes, isn’t that right?”

Something about how she said that seemed off. Adrien narrowed his eyes at her, but she didn’t seem to notice, continuing to smile innocently as she checked her phone. Before Adrien could question her, AU!Marinette’s eyes shot up to meet his. “The Akuma Alert App says the akuma is headed this way. We need to get somewhere safe!”

Catching sight of something behind AU!Marinette, Adrien exclaimed, “Kinda late for that now!” For coming at them at an alarming speed was Chloe, dressed in light grey from head to toe and surrounded by long floating scarves. If her getup didn’t convince anyone that she was akumatized, then the butterfly mask over her eyes were sure to do it.

“Run!”

Adrien didn’t know if it was him or AU!Marinette who yelled, but they both hightailed it out of there anyway. They rounded the block, trying to reach the bakery when they saw two Ninos in the distance sitting on a bench next to the park..

“Nino!” AU!Marinette called. “Get out of here! It’s an akuma!”

Unfortunately, neither Nino heard her, as they were both bobbing their heads to the music they were listening to through their headphones. Adrien wanted to slap his forehead and groan so badly. He instead opted for pushing AU!Marinette through the bakery’s front doors and slamming it shut before turning in the direction of his friends. However, in the seconds it took for him to get AU!Marinette to safety, the akuma had caught up to him. Bracing himself for whatever powers Chloe would throw at him, he was completely unprepared for when the akuma simply passed by him and headed straight for the Ninos instead.

There was no warning for when Chloe’s arm shot out and a scarf followed a path toward AU!Nino, connecting with his scarf and whitewashing it until the colors faded.

“Bro!” Nino shouted in horror as he leapt away from the bench.

AU!Nino made a choking sound before he fell to the ground, immobile.

The akuma turned her head to the side to stare at Nino. The boy froze in fright as Adrien began to run towards them. But Adrien didn’t have to worry, for Chloe faced forward once more and walked away, scanning the area for other victims, her gaze passing over Adrien without pause.

“Chloe! What did you do to Nino?” Adrien shouted, reaching the fallen boy and kneeling beside him. AU!Nino’s face was stuck in a shocked expression, his limbs bent at the joints as if he was still in the process of standing.

“Silly Adrikins,” the akumatized Chloe crooned. “My name is L’Original. I’m busy getting rid of all the stupid excess that we don’t need. Now where is that Marinette copycat? It’s bad enough there’s already one of her.” Adrien simply glared at her, starting to get sick of all the insults towards his friend. How he wished he was Chat Noir right now!

“For someone named L’Original, your name isn’t all that original.”

Speak of the devil.

An extended staff appeared and jabbed into L’Original’s back, knocking the akuma down and causing her to growl. A yo-yo came winding around her sprawled form, but the floating scarves intercepted them just in time to prevent L’Original from being binded. Several of the scarves shot out to try and capture Chat Noir and Ladybug, who both flipped away. In a flurry of white and grey, the akuma disappeared.

“Not again!” Ladybug exclaimed. “She’s not at all difficult to fight, but that disappearing trick is super annoying.”

Chat Noir rested his staff across his shoulders and left his wrists to hang over the ends. “We have to set up a trap and lure her out.”

“I might have an idea on how to do that,” Adrien piped up. He may not be suited up at the moment, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from helping his Lady.

“Adrien!” Ladybug called, running over to him. “Are you okay? The akuma didn’t hurt you or anything?”

Feeling flustered that Ladybug was all over him in concern, Adrien stuttered out, “Oh, uh yeah. I mean, no. I mean, I’m okay.  It didn’t do anything to me. I’m good.” He gave an awkward smile of reassurance. “But that’s why I think I know how to bait the akuma out.”

Chat Noir walked over to them, interest clearly written on his face. “So what’s L’Original looking for?”

“She seems to attack certain people rather than just everyone. She’s got a grudge against all the copies from the other world, so she went after AU!Nino over there,” Adrien explained as he gestured concernedly at the prone boy. Nino himself had disappeared to god knows where, but hopefully it was somewhere safe and out of the way. “She left me and the other Nino alone.”

Ladybug cut in, a focused look on her face. “The scarves. That’s the best way to distinguish who’s the original from this world and who’s a double from the other world. She’s going after everyone who doesn’t belong here.” Taking a step back, she took her yo-yo off her hip and threw it in the air. “Lucky Charm!”

A long strip of red and black polka-dotted cloth fell from the sky. Huh. Well that was pretty straightforward of the charm for once.

“Well, looks like we have our prop. Now all we need is the bait.” Chat looked at Adrien.

Oh, great.

***

“Oh, Marinette! Thank god you’re safe, but where’s our other Marinette?”

Marinette picked herself up from the bakery floor where she had been pushed down and looked up at the concerned faces of her Other parents.

“She and I got separated when we heard about the akuma. But don’t worry! She was inside the school last I saw her and she was headed somewhere to hide,” she quickly fibbed. No use in letting her parents fret needlessly, especially when she needed to get back outside. Other Adrien was probably out in the open still, trying to play hero even without a kwami. “I’m going up to my and Marinette’s room. Try and distract myself with homework or something.”

Other Sabine placed a gentle hand Marinette’s shoulder. “You do that, dear. And see if you can contact our other girl while you’re up there. Have her stay where she is.”

“No problem, Mama.”

Marinette could feel her parents’ gaze on her as she walked up the stairs to the home area, knowing she wouldn’t be able to leave through the side door. Maybe she could climb down the side of the building from the balcony? Once she got up there though, she couldn’t visibly see enough of the side of the building to know if there were any handholds for her to use to climb down. There weren’t any other plausible ways of getting down without the high possibility of slipping and breaking her neck.

Removing her scarf and tossing it down in frustration, she didn’t hear someone climbing up onto the balcony behind her.

“Where’s the other Marinette?”

Marinette jumped in surprise and whirled around.

“Chloe? You got away from the akuma?”

The blonde girl scoffed and placed a hand on her hip. “It wasn’t hard.” The haughtiness was familiar and quite expected, but there was a hardness to her words that set Marinette on edge.

“I saw the akuma earlier,” Marinette said warily. “It looks like something set the other Chloe off and got her akumatized. Would you know anything about that?”

There was the slightest pause. “Of course not. Maybe that other Marinette said something to her. Where is she anyway? Ask if she knows anything.” Chloe brushed a hand against her neckerchief unconsciously.

Marinette paused. The ladybug was white and black.

Assessing her situation, Marinette took a slow and casual step in Chloe’s direction. “Giving orders like usual. You’re a typical Queen Bee.”

Chloe turned her nose up. “It only makes sense that I’d be royalty.”

_Gotcha._

Marinette lunged at the other girl, receiving a shocked screech for her efforts. She grasped the akuma’s arms and locked them behind her back, using her legs to knock the other down to her knees. “What did you do to Chloe?” Marinette hissed in her ear.

Rather than responding, the akuma morphed into her normal form, allowing the scarves to emerge and wrap around Marinette. Struggling to twist herself out of the tangle of cloth, Marinette didn’t notice when the akuma reached for the abandoned red and black scarf, but she definitely felt when the fabric brushed around her neck. The last thing she was aware of was the color fading to white.

***

“You know, I have this feeling that you use this building a lot.”

Chat Noir was leaning against the wall of the television studio next to Ladybug, watching as Adrien, wearing the Lucky Charm scarf, made a live announcement through the news stations of Paris. He hoped Gabriel was watching and was having an aneurysm at seeing his own son act as bait for an akuma. If the man was who Chat thought he was, then it certainly served him right.

Arms crossed, Ladybug turned to him and answered. “It’s convenient for when we need to lure an akuma out, like right now. The downside is that some akuma do the same.”

Chat hummed in agreement. He remembered some instances when he and his own Ladybug had no choice but to walk into an obvious trap at the TVi studio. They ought to study the layout of the building when they get back to their own world.

He was brought out of his musings when the doors of the studio were slowly opened. Adrien paused his speech while Chat and Ladybug readied themselves for whatever came through the doors.

They were not prepared for Marinette to pop in.

Chat fell out of his defensive position. “Mari? What are you doing here?” He wouldn't say it to her face, but he hated it when she tried to fight akumas before she transformed.

Marinette ignored his question and looked behind him at Adrien, seeming to perk up at the sight of him.

“Darling! I'm so glad you're safe!”

She ran past a gobsmacked Chat and flustered Ladybug to the other boy, throwing her arms around his neck. Adrien looked embarrassed for all of two seconds before everyone saw Marinette begin to morph into a colorless figure.

“Shit!” Chat cursed as he used his staff to knock Adrien out of L’Original’s loosened grip. “That was a close one!”

“Adrien! Take off the scarf!” Ladybug commanded. The boy did as she said and rolled out of the way of the akuma’s onslaught of piercing scarves.

“Her name is just ironic now. ‘The Original’ who has the power to turn into a copy?” Chat was underwhelmed by the villain naming in this world and he'd only met one akuma.

“You learn to set your expectations low,” Adrien admitted as he ran behind Chat, probably knowing he'd be useless in the physical fight.

“Chat, you can have this conversation later or the other Ladybug is going to be left with a skinned cat when I'm through with you!”

“Yikes,” Chat heard Adrien mutter. “Talk about un _original_.”

He couldn't help but let a snicker escape as he and Ladybug pushed L’Original back towards a corner of the studio. The akuma didn't seem bothered though as she raised a hand and said, “Hold on just a second or else!”

What the heroes hadn't noticed was a scarf that blended into the wall and stretched out the doors of the room. The fabric was pulled back, dragging the stiff body of Marinette through the doors, her face frozen in a fierce expression. Chat’s heart squeezed tight. His love must've tried to fight the akuma off.

L’Original stood triumphantly. “These scarves don't just steal the colors of other scarves. Once I drain all of the colors on her clothes and body, it'll be her life next.”

“Still think this akuma is no big deal?” Ladybug asked sarcastically.

Chat grit his teeth. “Okay, so I may have jinxed us.”

Not having to see her face to know Ladybug was rolling her eyes (now who wasn't being serious?) Chat looked around to see how they could rescue Marinette. She once told him that the key to using her Lucky Charms was to never overlook their surroundings because literally anything could turn out to be useful. Seeing that Ladybug was doing the same thing, he felt reassured that they would all get out of this unharmed.

Ladybugs were lucky like that.

When the glint appeared in her eye, Chat knew it was time. “Grab me my scarf. I know exactly what to do.”

Giving a quick salute, Chat went to obey while Ladybug swung up to the suspended flood lights, knocking them around so the colored light shone on the akuma. L’Original yelped and covered her eyes as she was momentarily blinded. Her scarves all changed various colors, before slowly fading to white again. However, it gave the heroes enough time to use the polka-dotted scarf to bind L’Original’s hands to her face, effectively cutting off her vision and ability to move the scarves.

Ladybug ripped off the hairband holding the akuma’s hair up, which was the only part of Chloe’s outfit that had remained the same during her akumatization, allowing the corrupted butterfly to flutter into the air. As soon as the butterfly was trapped in the yo-yo, Chat immediately went to Marinette's side, picking her up and carefully cradling her to his chest.

He took off out of the studio and found an empty room to set her down in. Despite the stiffness, her body still contained warmth so it didn't give too big of an impression that she was dead, but it was quite unnerving.

“Sweet, sweet princess,” he murmured, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. The Miraculous Ladybugs swept through the room then and the girl's body became naturally soft and relaxed. “Always needing saving.”

A scoff came from pink lips. “Not as much as you, Chaton.”

His only reply was to pick up the love of his life and worship her existence the best way he knew how.

***

Adrien rubbed the back of his head in bashfulness. Here he was again, standing in front of his Lady as a civilian after being as useless as before. “Sorry I wasn't much help with the akuma.”

Ladybug seemed slightly surprised. “No, no need to apologize! You were the biggest help, especially by letting yourself be bait. It takes a lot of courage and self-sacrifice to do that.” She gave him a comforting smile. He blushed.

“Now that we've sent Chloe home though, I wonder where Marinette went and why Chat left so early.”

Now that she mentioned it, Adrien was curious about that, too. “If you have time, we could go look for them together?” he suggested. He knew Ladybug didn't have to rush since she recharged after summoning her Lucky Charm and before they began the news broadcast. If she agreed to stay, then he could savour the prolonged time they had together (and without his AU counterpart around to silently mock him).

As they walked through the hallways and checked each room, the two teens attempted to exchange conversation but would only be able to give a few sentences before one or both of them would catch the other's eyes and look away with a blush.

“So, how has fencing been since the last time we met?” Ladybug tried.

“It’s been great!” Adrien replied a little too enthusiastically. “I haven’t seen Kagami, the girl who was Riposte, since then, but I hope I can see her again so we can have that rematch we promised each other.”

“Ah, I see.”

Adrien couldn’t tell what Ladybug was feeling, but needless to say, the conversation fell flat once again after that. Sighing, he pulled open the last door on the current floor, preparing to see another empty room.

Of course the universe would take his expectations and toss them in the trash.

Because Adrien and Ladybug could only gape as they watched the intense makeout session occuring smack dab in the middle of the room. Chat Noir was bent over AU!Marinette, who was lying on her back on a desk with her legs wrapped tightly around Chat’s waist. Her shirt was pushed way above her chest, to which Adrien averted his gaze, but not before catching the gloved hands that were reverently caressing the girl’s form. Out of the corner of his eye, Adrien saw the two pull apart when they heard Ladybug’s squeak, their faces flushed and lips swollen. AU!Marinette frantically fixed her shirt and smoothed down her skirt.

“Uh…”

Right. Because what _can_ you say in this situation?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The most difficult part about writing this story is that my ideas come faster than I can write them down. I already knew exactly what I wanted to happen in this chapter before I even posted the last one, but I struggled with the actual composition of the chapter. If only I could just list the events and transfer my thoughts to my readers so you all know exactly what I'm trying to get at. 
> 
> Also, before anyone says anything, AU!Adrien is super casual on the topic of sex because he's talking to a dude his own age versus, like, some parental figure. He wants everyone to know his love for AU!Marinette, but he isn't going to brag about it either because he wouldn't disrespect his girl like that. Or something. I mean, this could also be me projecting my image of a dream guy onto this character.


	5. "Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the departure of Awkwardrien comes Sadrien because he has unavoidable Papagreste issues. 
> 
> Meanwhile, Marinette Densepain-Cheng is back at it again. (I tried too hard with that one, I know). 
> 
> There's a half-reveal of a sort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote from Marvel's The Avengers (2012).

“I don't even know where to begin and where to end! You and AU!Adrien are so freaking comfortable around each other and I can't, I can't, I just can't even! How are you not a complete mess around him!”

Marinette raised an eyebrow from where she sat on the chaise. “We were friends before we dated?”

“And don't even get me started on AU!Chat Noir!” her Other continued as if she didn't hear Marinette. “I know you know who he is and that probably makes you two ‘good friends,’” Other Marinette lifted her fingers into quote marks, “but I'm pretty sure friends don't do _that_ together!” She began to pace around the room, arms wildly gesticulating with each point. “And speaking of Chat, we haven't even talked about the biggest issue here. All of you AU people are still stuck in this world and with no way to get home. We never defeated that Doppelgänger akuma and they could be anywhere right now! What if Doppelgänger comes back and blindsides us and switches everyone in Paris with their AU selves and the whole world turns upside down because millions of people aren't where they're supposed to be and the balance of the universes is disrupted—!”

Marinette let the other girl rant as she checked her phone and even went downstairs briefly to grab a snack for the two of them and Tikki. Ten minutes later, Other Marinette finally said something of actual interest.

“If you and I are supposed to essentially be the same person, then I can't see either of us actually cheating on the boy we love. You're dating AU!Adrien but also doing things with AU!Chat… There's only one explanation for this.”

Internally sighing, Marinette knew she couldn't have kept it a secret for much longer anyway. She was never good at keeping secrets in the first place.

Other Marinette stopped in her tracks and turned to look her counterpart in the eye. “AU!Adrien and AU!Chat… They're the same person.”

Marinette smiled proudly but said jokingly, “Wow! I thought for sure your obliviousness would keep you guessing for a few more days.”

Rolling her eyes, Other Marinette replied, “Ha ha ha, you're so funny.” She tapped her chin, furrowing her brows in deep thought. “But at least we know of one more solid difference between our worlds now.”

“Uh, and what is that?” Marinette asked, confused. Even Tikki, floating by Marinette’s shoulder, tilted her head questioningly.

Other Marinette threw her arms up exasperatedly in a “Really, guys?” manner. “In your world, Adrien is Chat, but in this world, Adrien and Chat are two different people!”

Silence.

Marinette and Tikki looked at each other, confirming that they both held the exact same feelings about what they just heard. Utter disbelief.

Still eyeing each other, Marinette and Tikki had a rapid silent conversation, which kind of turned into a rapid silent argument.

Relenting, Marinette turned back to her Other, who was busy writing down her thoughts at the desk. “Well,” she began, “I'm not going to say anything about it. It's your world, so I'll keep out of it as much as possible.”

“I really appreciate that,” Other Marinette said earnestly, though it didn't seem like she understood what Marinette meant. Marinette just barely kept from slapping herself. “But, if it’s alright, can I ask how you and your Adrien learned about each other’s secret? How did it happen? And when?”

Marinette giggled. “Actually, Adrien and I have always known.”

Tikki floated around to Other Marinette and they both stared wide eyed at Marinette. “What?” they exclaimed.

Nodding, Marinette elaborated. “The first time we fought an akuma together, we sorta revealed ourselves because we didn’t get the memo that our identities should’ve been secret?” She ended in a lilting tone and shrug of her shoulders that displayed her lack of concern over the issue. Her sheepishness seemed to mollify her Other just a tiny bit though.

“But,” the other girl began, “isn’t it super dangerous that you both know? How have you gone so long without accidentally revealing yourself to anyone else?”

Avoiding the gaze of the girl and her kwami, Marinette winced. “Well…”

“Marinette!” Tikki shouted, aghast.

Marinette pouted. “Hey, I’m alive and I still have my Miraculous, right? Give me _some_ credit here.”

All she got was skeptical looks. She sighed. “Okay, look. Why don’t we discuss this more later? My Adrien is coming over for dinner and we can talk afterwards, now that you know who he is.” She paused, thinking. “Unless the Other Adrien comes over for dinner, too, then we’ll have to find a different time to talk.”

“What?!” Other Marinette shouted. “Adrien is coming _here_?! But I’m not prepared for that!” She jumped out of her chair and dove into her closet. “I don’t have an outfit ready! My mental state is not ready! When did you even plan this?!”

Marinette laughed. “While you were busy talking to yourself earlier. I even asked our parents already and they’re super excited to have guests over.” She clapped her hands together and said cheerfully, “So there’s no getting out of it now!”

Other Marinette simply melted to the floor as she bemoaned the mess that she was.

***

Adrien was so shook.

After Ladybug had whisked AU!Marinette away in a fluster, he and Chat were left to awkwardly make their way home together, albeit with lots of frustrated grumbling from the latter. Now they were back in his room (AU!Adrien stayed in the spare room next to his but prefered to keep Adrien and Plagg company) where Adrien sat at his desk as he watched his counterpart dance away his horniness on the DDR machine (it didn’t seem to be working (unsurprising, since that was probably the most ineffective way to, ehem, _calm_ yourself)).

Adrien took the time to reflect on all the revelations that day, considering one thing after another kept happening until it escalated to the akuma attack.

So.

AU!Adrien was in a relationship with AU!Marinette. AU!Adrien was in love with AU!Ladybug. AU!Adrien, being AU!Chat Noir, was in a relationship with AU!Marinette while being in love with AU!Ladybug. AU!Marinette was absolutely fine (more than fine) with AU!Chat, who was AU!Adrien,  ravishing her while she was in a relationship with AU!Adrien, who was AU!Chat, both of whom were in love with AU!Ladybug.

Steepling his fingers and concentrating with his utmost effort, Adrien slowly put things together until finally, it all made sense.

“Oh, my god!” He jumped up from his chair so suddenly that it startled AU!Adrien and caused him to stumble to the floor.

“Huh? What? What happened?”

“Did you forget to buy me more camembert or something?” came Plagg. “Because if you did, then I excuse you for freaking out all of a sudden as long as you fix the situation immediately.”

“Marinette,” Adrien breathed. “Marinette. Ladybug. _Marinette. Ladybug_.”

AU!Adrien got up and walked over to the desk, grabbing the second chair that they had dragged in there the day before. He sat down with a curious look. “What about Marinette and Ladybug?”

Adrien looked at the other boy with a determined gaze. “They’re the same person, aren’t they, your Marinette and your Ladybug.”

After a few seconds, he received a nod. “I’m actually surprised you figured it out already.”

Shaking his head, Adrien admitted, “I made it so much more complicated for myself than I needed to.” He hesitated to ask his next question, but the longer he pondered it, the greater his desire for answers was. “So does this mean that my own Ladybug and Marinette are the same?”

His counterpart shrugged. “I actually don’t know for sure. I never asked Mari or talked to your Ladybug about it. I’m not gonna help you find out either,” he added, “because that Ladybug seems super adamant about secret super  identities staying super secret.”

That got Adrien really thinking. Ladybug, with her bluebell eyes and dark midnight hair and take-charge attitude in the face of danger, who captured his heart so early on. And Marinette, with her cute freckles and butt-wiggle dance when she was excited or anxious and immeasurable kindness for those around her, who admittedly was growing on him with her endearingly adorable weird quirks. Was it really that farfetched that they were one and the same?

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lucky charm bracelet, the same one Marinette gave to him all those years ago. The odd assortment of beads allowed each color to stick out in their own way, the big green square with a flower imprint at the center of it all.

No, it wasn’t hard to believe at all. In fact, it made more sense than most things in his life at the moment. If Marinette was Ladybug… A smile formed on his face as he gently rubbed the beads with his thumb. That would be the best thing ever. But AU!Adrien was right. Whoever Ladybug was, she didn’t want to them to reveal their identities, at least, not yet. Adrien wouldn’t ask her any questions and he wouldn’t actively look for clues either, but that didn’t mean he couldn't continue to wonder.

Adrien was startled when the other boy jumped out of his chair excitedly, effectively pulling him from his thoughts.

AU!Adrien grinned. “Get ready, my friend. We’re having dinner with the Dupain-Chengs today!”

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, Adrien also got up from his chair. “What? Why?”

His twin walked over to him and placed his hands on his shoulders. “Look, Adrien. I’m gonna level with you.” Adrien wasn’t prepared for the serious look he was given. “If we stay here for dinner, we’re going to go down there and sit at a long empty table for who knows how long waiting for someone who probably won’t show up. We missed the meeting time with him already so the chances of him making any more effort to see us today are slim to none. But you already know that, don’t you?”

Adrien felt his face drop. He looked to the ground between them, feeling smaller the longer the other kept talking. “Nathalie put dinner with us on his schedule,” he attempted. It sounded empty to his own ears, but something that cursed him was his ability to hope, despite all past disappointments. “On the off chance that he’ll actually show…I want to be here.”

He felt as his counterpart took a step back and dropped his hands, knowing that if he were to look up he’d see a sympathetic but pitying face looking back. They hadn’t talked about it, but AU!Adrien seemed to have similar problems with his father, granted he was more outspoken about it than Adrien. Whatever the actual differences were however, Adrien had his own way of dealing with it and he wasn’t going to drag the other boy into it. “You can still go over to their place. I’ll be okay staying here.”

“That’s bullshit.”

Adrien sighed, knowing he was in for a long argument.

***

There was a knock on the front door.

“Gah! He’s here! They’re here!”

While Marinette was busy freaking out near the couch of the living area, AU!Marinette calmly walked over the the door and swung it open. Marinette promptly crouched down while peeking over the edge of the couch.

“Mari! I haven’t seen you in so long!”

A tall form went flying through the doorway and onto AU!Marinette, who easily caught the boy as he wrapped his arms and legs around her like a koala. Laughing, she tightened her grip around him and replied, “You saw me not even hours ago, you big dork!”

“That’s way too long,” he muffled into her hair. The pair made quite the sight. A boy who was almost a grown man being carried by a short petite girl like he was a sack of feathers. Sure, Marinette had become significantly stronger throughout her years as Ladybug, but the magical earrings didn’t give her _super_ strength as a civilian. Did AU!Marinette lift?

Patting his head, AU!Marinette looked over his shoulder and greeted the other person who was apparently still standing outside. “Hey, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Marinette perked up. Did Adrien actual show?

“I’m offended you’d think I would go more than a day without gracing your house with my lovely presence.”

Marinette quickly deflated. Oh. That sounded like Chloe. Hopefully it was the new and improved Chloe.

Setting her boyfriend down on his feet, AU!Marinette stepped forward to lightly embrace AU!Chloe and kiss her cheeks. “I’m just saying, weren’t you hit by the akuma today who, by the way, was caused by you? And currently lives with you? Shouldn’t you be apologizing for whatever you said that made her upset?”

AU!Chloe flipped her hand and scoffed as Marinette emerged from behind the couch and timidly waved at AU!Adrien in silent greeting. “Sure, I said I’d fix my attitude if she fixed her life.”

Marinette raised her eyebrows. “Wow. Even this supposedly better version of Chloe is still a bitch.” She was not sorry for saying that.

Slapping her forehead, AU!Marinette groaned out, “I hope you didn’t actually say that to her.”

AU!Chloe smirked. “Of course not. I’m not that stupid. I passed by her on the way out of the hotel and said I’d talk with her later. I needed some air and ran into your cat here. We stopped somewhere to buy some wine for dinner.” She handed a bag over to Marinette, who took a peek inside. Her eyes widened.

“Richebourg Grand Cru?” she read out loud. “That’s like 4,000 euros!”

“Should we have gotten something better?” AU!Adrien asked innocently. At Marinette’s and his girlfriend’s looks, he corrected himself. “Cheaper?”

Rolling her eyes, AU!Marinette grumbled, “You rich kids disgust me sometimes.”

While AU!Adrien rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, AU!Chloe didn’t look at all fazed. Figures.

“So, um,” Marinette began, “is Adrien not coming?”

AU!Adrien sighed. “He’s staying home to have dinner with his father.” Was it just Marinette, or did he almost spit out that last word?

“Oh,” she replied disappointedly.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Sorry I couldn’t get him to come and give you the chance to hang out with him.”

“Wha—? Me? I, I mean, psh! Just because you and Marinette are together doesn’t mean _I_ have a crush on _Adrien_.” Marinette’s shoulders slouched. “Oh, who am I kidding? It’s obvious to everyone except the guy himself by now.”

“That’s for sure,” AU!Chloe snorted.

“Chloe!” AU!Marinette scolded. She turned to Marinette. “Don’t listen to her. It’s her day job to annoy people and her night job to make them remember it. Now, why don’t we set up the table so everything can be ready for dinner by the time our parents close the bakery?”

The other three agreed and set to work. Marinette was amazed by how at home AU!Adrien and AU!Chloe seemed. They knew where all the dishes and silverware were and exactly how to set it up for so many people in the tiny living space. She didn’t even realize her home could fit more than four people for dinner.

By the time they were done, her parents had come upstairs from the bakery and brought the food they made onto the table. They welcomed AU!Adrien with open arms and AU!Chloe with hardly any hesitation and everyone sat down to eat.

“Do you two go over to Marinette’s often for dinner?” Marinette asked as she filled up her plate.

“Chloe comes by every week but Adrien is there pretty much every day,” AU!Marinette laughed. “But being who they are, they like to treat my family out to dinner every month or so, too.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet of you kids,” Sabine cooed. She looked at AU!Adrien. “But don’t you ever want to stay home and have dinner with your family?”

Said boy tensed up from beside Marinette. On his other side she could see AU!Marinette had placed her hand on his. “Uh, my father and I are not on the best terms,” he reluctantly confessed. “But I make sure I’m not a bother to Sabine and Tom from our world! That’s why Chloe and I team up to treat them whenever we can get away with it.”

“Oh, you poor child,” Sabine gasped. “Well, whether or not you are comfortable staying at home, know that you are always welcome here. Especially since I know your Mari would love for you to be here.”

AU!Marinette put her hands up. “Guilty, as charged. I’m not ashamed to admit it.”

“And what about the other boy, the other Adrien?” Tom interjected. “Why don’t you bring him by next time, tomorrow even? I’m sure our Marinette would love it!”

“P-Papa!” Marinette whined. She wouldn’t complain about having Adrien over, especially since he didn’t come this time, but her dad was so straightforward sometimes it was mortifying.

AU!Adrien winked. “Don’t you _ferment_. The Other Adrien was _raised_ with manners as good as mine and together we’ll put all your worries to _Agreste_.”

AU!Marinette buried her face in her hands while Sabine giggled and Tom guffawed. Marinette cringed. That was horrible and so forced.

Chloe snorted. “Who even are you?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m a genius millionaire catboy philanthropist.”

Tom laughed. “A genius millionaire catboy philanthropist, eh? I don’t know what the cat part is all about, but everything else gets my stamp of approval for you to marry my daughter-from-another-universe!”

“That’s very reassuring, Tom,” AU!Adrien said earnestly. He grasped both of AU!Marinette’s hands in his. “After all, my Mari is totally _out of this world._ ”

Another round of laughter and good-natured teasing about Marinette’s lovelife and it was time for dessert. Marinette’s parents let the rest of them take a plate of croquembouche (AU!Adrien smiled cheekily at his girlfriend, who pushed him away in exasperation) to share amongst themselves in Marinette’s room. AU!Chloe however had excused herself and said it was time for her to head back to the hotel and have that talk with Chloe. This allowed for Marinette to finally do what she had been wanting since Doppelgänger first appeared.

She stood with arms crossed before AU!Marinette and AU!Adrien as they sat on the chaise snacking on their sweets.

“Alright, now that I have both of you here, you’re going to start explaining some things to me.”

“There’s a lot to tell if you want to know everything. From what I’ve seen so far, our worlds are actually really different,” AU!Marinette said before she took a bite of her croquembouche.

Tikki floated over to the sweets-laden plate and dove in with delight. She popped back up, cheeks full, and suggested, “Why don’t you two just summarize your time as Ladybug and Chat Noir? Everything else can be explained as they come up.”

“Great idea, Tikki,” AU!Adrien praised as he patted the kwami on her head. He went right into it. “When I first got my Miraculous, I was still homeschooled, but I was already making plans with Chloe to attend Collège Françoise Dupont with her. Around the same time, I met Mari and we kind of got to know each other when the first akuma attacked. We defeated the akuma and then detransformed in front of each other. We kind of forgot that we should’ve kept our identities secret.” He laughed sheepishly. “Man, Tikki really scolded us that day. I think Mari was going to cry, considering she and Tikki had also just met.”

The girl punched him in the arm. “I was _not_ going to cry. That was you.”

Rubbing his arm, he continued as if she hadn’t said anything. “When I finally started going to school, I was super psyched to see not only my childhood friend Chloe, but also my new friend Mari were both in my class. I think I followed you around for a full week before you got annoyed and forced Nino to be my friend,” he said jokingly.

AU!Marinette smirked. “Don’t go changing the facts again. It was a whole month that you wouldn’t leave me alone and not just at school. You visited the bakery all the time, stuck to me during patrols and even joined me on my errands. Now that I think about it, you were obsessed with me.”

Marinette put her hands to her warm cheeks, imagining what it would be like to have Adrien so focused on her. It would be a dream! They would learn everything about each other and gradually grow closer both emotionally and, ( _eek!_ ) physically! They would begin to go on dates and plan a future together that involved getting married and having three children and a pet hamster!

(Little did she know, that was exactly how the AU!s’ relationship had progressed.)

Lost in her daydream as she was, Marinette eventually realized that she had missed some parts of the story.

“—and now we have a list of people who know that is almost as long as the guest list to our future wedding,” AU!Adrien finished as he fiddled with his scarf.

“Don’t be silly, we’re going to have _way_ more than twenty people at our wedding.”

Marinette blinked and shook her head to clear it. “Uh, sorry, what was that last part?”

AU!Marinette waved it off. “Nothing, nothing. The most important thing you needed to know is that a lot of people actually know that we’re Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

Marinette’s jaw dropped. “What?!”

Shaking her head, Tikki sighed. “Marinette, you weren’t listening, were you?” She floated up to close Marinette’s mouth and hovered in front of her face. “In the other world, AU!Marinette’s parents, their whole class, Madame Bustier, Monsieur Damocles and Mayor Bourgeois all know that AU!Marinette and AU!Adrien are Ladybug and Chat Noir,” she explained as slowly and succinctly as possible. She then turned to the two on the chaise. “I’m very disappointed in you two for messing up so bad. No matter what universe, such knowledge of magical powers should be a tightly kept secret. It was fine when it was just you two, but at this point I’m surprised Hawkmoth hasn’t caught on to you yet.”

“It wasn’t like we revealed ourselves to everyone in one fell swoop. It was really just a long string of separate unfortunate incidences,” AU!Adrien tried to defend. Tikki just frowned harder, if it was possible.

“Adrien and I actually are starting to worry that Hawkmoth is close to finding us out. But we plan to make a move on him soon,” AU!Marinette declared. “We know who he is.”

Tikki gasped. Marinette narrowed her eyes, biting her lip in anticipation, but her unspoken question was never answered.

“That’s why we need to figure out how to get back sooner rather than later,” AU!Adrien continued. “Mari and I were thinking of gathering the crew, or what we have of them, and forming a plan of action this weekend.”

“The crew?” Marinette questioned.

AU!Marinette nodded with a smile. “Chloe, Nino, Alix, Kim and Max. All our friends who traveled dimensions with us. If you remember from before, they know who Adrien and I are. It doesn’t seem like they’ve told their counterparts yet that we’re Ladybug and Chat Noir, so we’ll try to keep it that way.”

Marinette felt skeptical that they would manage for any time at all, considering their track record. But what could she really do about it except help them all get home? She shrugged in defeat. “Alright, where are you guys all meeting then?”

AU!Adrien grinned. “Tomorrow’s the weekend and it’s almost summertime. We’re going on a—”

***

_A beach trip?_

Adrien lied on his bed, staring morosely at his phone. AU!Adrien was right about his father not showing, but couldn’t that guy just give him an hour to mope?

“Why the long face? Don’t you humans like frolicking in the sand and the waves or whatever?”

He slowly blinked. “I dunno, Plagg. I’ve never been to the beach. Don’t know if I ever _will_ go, considering my father would probably give some half-baked excuse to keep me here.”

Plagg dropped himself on Adrien’s phone with a wedge of cheese in his paws, causing the boy’s nose to wrinkle. “I thought you would be an adult by now. Don’t adults make their own decisions? I’m pretty sure that’s what the other Adrien’s been doing.”

Adrien sighed and turned away, curling in on himself. “That’s because he’s him and I’m me. We aren’t the same person.” The boy closed his eyes with a sigh. “He seems to have his life all figured out, the girl he loves actually loves him back, and he knows how to take no crap from his own father. I am 0 for 3 on that.”

“Hey, it looks like that Marinette girl is going on that trip.”

Adrien’s eyes shot open and he swept Plagg off his phone to look at the latest messages his twin sent him.

_Twingreste: I’ve got a plan to sneak you out for the weekend so we can spend time with our girls_

_Twingreste: Your Mari is all for it. She’s gonna be head of the operation_

Adrien gripped his phone tightly. “Plagg, we’re gonna make it 1 of 3 this weekend. And maybe even work towards 2 of 3 by the end…”

Whether or not Marinette was Ladybug, she was the type of girl any guy would be lucky to have, as a friend or a girlfriend.

And Adrien was determined to make one of those happen by the end of this trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. First Awkwardrien and then Sadrien makes an appearance. Look at this multifaceted character. Hopefully Gladrien will join the party soon, amirite? But seriously, wtf is this chapter.
> 
> And how about that half-reveal? Remember, there's actually four people now with eight identities rather than our standard two people with four identities. If you want to get technical though, I guess it's like 5/8 or 3/4 of a reveal considering Adrien is getting close. Let's see how long it takes to be a full 100% reveal. 
> 
> Yes, I am also going to be doing the obligatory beach episode/chapter. It's not gonna be much plot from what I can sense but there's probably gonna be lots of fun.
> 
> Lastly, I have a very important question to ask: French or English?


	6. "From now on, we will be using code names. You can address me as Eagle One. Ann, code name—Been There, Done That. April is—Currently Doing That. Donna is—It Happened Once in a Dream. Chris, code name—If I Had to Pick a Dude. Ben is—Eagle Two."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids start a very convoluted mission that has many unnecessary parts. So many, that the author probably riddled the whole plan with things that don't make sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote from Parks and Recreation (2009-15).
> 
> A helpful note for this chapter:  
> Marinette and AU!Marinette = Cupcake 1 and 2  
> Adrien and AU!Adrien = Sunshine 1 and 2  
> Nino and AU!Nino = Soda 1 and 2  
> Alya = Habanero  
> Chloe and AU!Chloe = Vinegar and Honey  
> Nathaniel = Tomato  
> Max and AU!Max = Mint 1 and 2  
> Alix and AU!Alix = Strawberry Milk 1 and 2  
> Kim and AU!Kim = Licorice 1 and 2  
> Ivan = Crunch  
> Mylene = Skittles  
> Markov = iRobot  
> Gabriel = The Jailer  
> Nathalie = Pantsuit  
> The Gorilla = Ape

“Operation: S.O.S., Saving Our Sunshine, is a go!”

***

“Girl, sometimes you really amaze me when you can take charge and get everyone to follow your lead,” Alya praised, clearly impressed, as they sat in the front seats of a charter bus that was parked just down the street of Agreste Manor. “But do we really need everyone in the class to help us with the plan?” She gestured to the group sitting in the middle of the bus, gathered around two people in particular. Max and AU!Max had set up computer monitors, both typing and clicking away furiously on programs that Marinette could barely begin to understand. Nathaniel sat a little to the side, dragging a pen across his drawing tablet without pause. Watching them from behind were Juleka, Rose and Sabrina. 

Marinette sweatdropped. “Eh…we don't. It's just when Kim heard from AU!Kim what we were doing, he wanted to join, and then so did Alix and Rose and they dragged Nathaniel along… It kinda snowballed from there and now everyone has a job or at least wants to know everything that happens. And you know I can't ever say no to anyone's kitten eyes!”

Checking the time on her phone, Alya asked, “And AU!Mari couldn't help you by putting her foot down?”

“Believe it or not, she couldn't resist the eyes either. I think she broke down before me.”

A crackle of static sounded before a voice teasingly said, “I bet it was because her lover boy was giving her sexy bedroom eyes!”

“Alix!” AU!Marinette’s voice shrieked.

“Excuse you, I’m Strawberry Milk 2 right now.”

“Aw, Mari, you think I’m hot!” AU!Adrien joked. Marinette felt her face burn hotly, as hearing the boy’s voice caused her to imagine Adrien playfully bantering with her. What she didn’t expect was for her imaginary Adrien to turn into Chat Noir. Shaking her head, Marinette suddenly realized what just happened.

Her hand flew to her ear. “Oh my god! Don’t tell me I pressed the talk button on the earpiece earlier and forgot to turn it off!!”

There was silence from the device before Ivan’s voice said in utmost seriousness, “We won’t tell you.”

Groaning, Marinette slapped a hand to her face. At least she hadn’t said anything too incriminating. “Alright, guys. Let's just focus on the operation for now. Are Sunshine 2, Cupcake 2 and Soda 1 finished with their task?”

Nino’s voice responded, “Roger, Cupcake 1! We just left the guy’s apartment and we sent the files to Mint 1 and Mint 2.” Looking behind her, Marinette saw Max and AU!Max send her identical thumbs ups.

“Good. Crunch and Skittles, any sign of The Jailer?”

“Yes! He's in his office!” came Mylene’s voice along with a grunt from Ivan.

“Good! Keep your eyes on him. Honey and Vinegar, you guys are up! Just follow Licorice 1 and Strawberry Milk 1’s lead.”

AU!Chloe’s voice gave a short affirmative and Marinette could hear Chloe’s affronted grumbling in the background, telling Marinette that she didn’t even bother to press the talk button of her earpiece.

Ever since AU!Marinette had received a text from AU!Chloe saying that Chloe wanted to be part of the rescue mission, Marinette's mind had been turned on its side. Sure, the girl had made minor obnoxious complaints during Marinette's explanation of the plan, but other than that, she was relatively harmless in the past few hours. She had no idea what the two girls talked about when AU!Chloe went home the day before.

“Why not give her the benefit of the doubt,” Marinette's twin had suggested. “Maybe she likes Adrien more than she hates everyone else.”

That hadn’t been reassuring to Marinette in the slightest and she remained skeptical, but relented when she knew Chloe would just kick up a tantrum and waste precious time if Marinette refused her participation. 

“I'm giving her one chance,” she had replied, throwing up a finger. “If I see even one tear, she's not coming with us.”

“Fair enough.”

So here they were, waiting for Chloe and her counterpart to complete their part of the plan, which may or may not have been illegal. Everything else in the plan was definitely illegal, though.

“Leaving these clothes here is a shame.” Marinette couldn’t tell which Chloe had said that. 

“Is it really breaking and entering if someone who is technically Adrien Agreste—” Kim was cut off by Alya clearing her throat. “Sorry,  _ Sunshine 1 _ , kinda sorta maybe gave us permission?”

AU!Max piped up from his spot at his computer. “Yes. Sunshine 1 does not have any ownership of the  _ Gabriel _ brand nor the  _ Gabriel  _ company building. Even if he did, Sunshine 2 would be committing an act of identity theft, thus making your unpermitted entrance an act of trespassing.”

“Thanks for the reminder that we’re all criminals now, Mint 2,” Marinette sarcastically replied. “Tomato!”

Nathaniel was startled from his task as he looked at Marinette, his face a burning shade of red (probably from the content on his tablet) and making him look like an actual tomato. “Y-yeah?”

“How close to done are you with the photos?”

“Oh, uh, I just need one more minute.”

“The Jailer is on the move,” Ivan interrupted. “I repeat: The Jailer is on the move.”

If Ivan and Mylene lost sight of Gabriel Agreste, he could end up anywhere in the massive manor. It was rumored that the man never left his house, but AU!Adrien mentioned that his own house contained numerous secret passages, so the man could potentially disappear off the face of the earth if he wanted. If that happened, the entire class would straight up have to move to Plan K: Kidnap Sunshine, which was much more likely to get them all put in jail.

“iRobot, have you taken care of the defense of the house?”

“Security measures disabled,  _ mon amie _ ,” came the most adorable computer generated voice. Markov was too cute for his own good. Even when he was akumatized and commanded an army of killer machines, the little robot’s love for his friend melted Ladybug’s heart. “They will reactivate in one hour.”

“That’s Soda 2’s cue. Follow Licorice 2 and Strawberry Milk 2 into the house and don’t let Pantsuit or Ape catch you!” she stressed the last part. 

“Relax, Cupcake,” AU!Kim said cockily. “In my world, doing these kinds of things is a breeze.”

“You could say it’s  _ a piece of cake _ ,” AU!Adrien snickered.

While everyone else groaned or complained about the lame joke, Marinette shook her head. She had more pressing matters to focus on. 

“Fine. Soda 2, it’s all on you once you guys find The Jailer. Stall him for as long as you can. Licorice 2 and Strawberry Milk 2, stay hidden and head to Sunshine’s room in case we need to change to Plan K. Habanero, has Sunshine 1 gotten the message? And how are we doing on time?”

Alya waved her phone around. “He’s completely caught up on the plan. His stuff is ready and he’s just waiting for the signal. It’s 8:30, but we might hit traffic on the way to  _ Gabriel _ .”

“Manageable. Soda 1, where are you guys now?”

“Just down the street,” huffed Nino, telling Marinette that the three were running. They seemed to be making good time.

“Mint 1, be prepared to control the traffic signals. Mint 2, send the payment to the photographer. Crunch and Skittles, leave the hotel and come back to the bus. Everyone at the company building, get out and wait at the entrance. We’ll pick you up once we finish things here.”

Taking a breath, Marinette took a moment to gather herself. All the complicated and intricate parts of the plan were over, but the hardest part had yet to come. She got up and walked over to the others, silently thanking Nathaniel when he passed her a thick manila envelope, the warmth of the paper indicating fresh prints inside. Holding the envelope close to her, Marinette quickly exited the bus with her friends’ encouragement calling out behind her and she shot down the street to meet with the group running from the opposite direction.

When they all met at the Agreste gates, Nino looked more out of breath than the others. AU!Marinette and AU!Adrien seemed to barely have broken a sweat. Marinette understood that well. Hero work really increases one’s stamina.

She handed off the envelope to AU!Adrien and watched as he entered the manor grounds with determination in his steps. Without his scarf, it was like watching Adrien walk up those stairs. Marinette sighed wistfully.

AU!Marinette sighed apprehensively. “I’m kinda worried.”

Nino placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be. If he’s anything like my bro Adrien, then he can take whatever the jerkface throws at him.” Marinette nodded in agreement.

Sighing again, AU!Marinette turned away and began to walk towards the bus. “It’s not Adrien I’m worried about,” she said cryptically.

***

As Adrien approached the large front doors of the manor, he couldn’t help but feel that this was a premonition for what he was to face in the future. One day he would have to walk up the steps to what he used to consider his own home, to face the man who he called Father. 

But for today, he was walking the steps of the house of another, to pick up someone who could be his brother for a fun weekend at the beach with their friends. No problem.

Adrien squared his shoulders and pushed open the massive doors, instantly recognizing Nino’s voice doing its best to drown out another man’s voice. 

Fully entering the house, Adrien found Gabriel Agreste standing across from Nino with his hands behind his back, looking as immaculate as anyone would expect with his self-designed business outfit, thousand euro black-framed silver glasses and perfectly styled hair. 

At his entrance, Gabriel immediately shifted his attention to him. “Adrien, where are you just coming from? Escort your…friend,” he said with no small amount of disgust, “out of here. We need to discuss your recent behavior and lack of punctuality.”

Stepping closer, Adrien reached behind himself and smoothly pulled his thin cat print scarf from his pocket and draped it around his shoulders. “Sorry, but I’m not your son.”

By the minute widening of the man’s eyes, Adrien knew Gabriel was taken aback. “So you are the other one.” Quickly recovering however, he straightened himself, perhaps to appear taller and more intimidating. “No matter. You are Adrien Agreste whether in this world or your own. You represent my son, therefore you  _ are _ my son and represent me.”

Not able to keep the frown off his face, Adrien walked up until he was toe to toe with the older man. Neither of them noticed that Nino had promptly disappeared, his job done. “If I’m your son, then you should listen to what I have to say. I’m eighteen. Your  _ real _ son is eighteen. If it weren’t for the friends he made, he’d be living a pretty lackluster life. Why not give him a break this weekend and let him have some fun for once?”

Gabriel seemed to want to step back, but held his ground, attempting to look down his nose at Adrien despite the two of them being quite close in height. “Considering he is eighteen, he should realize that life has no room for such frivolous matters.” He turned around to walk away. “Now, get ready to leave with Nathalie in an hour. You and my other son have a photoshoot and then basketball practice to attend.”

“No.”

That stopped Gabriel short. Looking over his shoulder at Adrien, he asked frostily, “What was that?”

Adrien smirked. He wasn’t done surprising this man. He held up the manila envelope. “It looks like I can’t reason with you that easily. So I have something that might make you change your mind.”

Cautiously, Gabriel took the envelope from Adrien’s hand. He slipped out a stack of photographs, and as he flipped through each one, his lips became thinner and his eyebrows angled down in fury. He looked back up at Adrien and waved the photos in his face. “You think you can  _ blackmail _ me?” he hissed. “And at the expense of Adrien’s reputation?”

Putting his hands in his pockets, Adrien shrugged. “You think just because I’m Adrien Agreste, I’ll be like Adrien Agreste? Well news flash: I am  _ not _ your son. I am not some nice lonely teen who’ll do anything to prove that his father actually loves him.” Leaning forward to get into Gabriel’s space, Adrien continued. “You know nothing about me. For all you know, I could be a cold-hearted criminal. One who doesn’t care if he ruins a few lives.” He nodded to the photos that were crumpling from the death grip Gabriel had on them. “And if that’s still not enough to convince you, you should know that there’s a whole room full of  _ Chanel’s _ clothing that hasn’t been showcased yet somewhere in your company building. Imagine what people would say if one of the world’s top fashion designers,  _ Gabriel Agreste _ , was stealing designs?”

Stepping back, Adrien noted with satisfaction that Gabriel looked like he was about to punch something. “Fine,” he gritted out. “Adrien can have his  _ fun _ . Now which room is it?”

Feeling smug, Adrien replied, “Your office.”

Not bothering to say anything else, Gabriel stiffly turned around and walked back to his office, slamming the door once he was inside.

Letting his shoulders drop, Adrien sighed in relief. It worked. Granted, he probably just made the worst enemy in Paris that he could, but it was definitely worth it. He was going to show Other Adrien how to have so much fun that the boy would finally try to fight for what he wants. 

But, maybe without blackmail.

As he strolled up the steps to Other Adrien’s room, Adrien smiled cheekily at the sexy photos he now had of him and Marinette. Too bad her face didn’t show in any of them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was absolutely pointless, except maybe the last scene. Fortunately, we'll be having the beach episode next!
> 
> Thanks to those who replied to my question, "English or French?" I kept it pretty vague as I wanted to know what everyone thought between the two languages either for the show or in general. I myself like to listen in French but the English version is really good too, so I switch it up all the time. As for the opening song, I prefer the French version, but the English one has good meme potential. 
> 
> The contents of the photos in this chapter probably sounded like they were pornographic in nature, but no worries, they weren't. They basically hired a freelance photographer to take photos of AU!Adrien and AU!Marinette in relatively normal clothing but in kinda suggestive positions. AU!Mari's face and other identifying features were left out so Marinette wouldn't get the bad end of it. The reason why Gabriel would care about these photos is that it would create a scandal for Adrien, who everyone knows to be this princely supermodel. So to have supposedly candid photos of him with some woman would definitely create some kind of uproar. Gabriel doesn't need that in his life, especially with his, ehem, side hobby. Planting the unreleased Chanel fashion line was just a backup. It's Gabriel's problem now. Maybe it'll get the man out of the house more.
> 
> Also, I absolutely hated using so many code names for so many people. You guys can be rest assured that I will not be doing that again any time soon.


	7. “Yes! We defeated you for all time! You will never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation!... Well that was fun.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part one of the beach episode from the point of view of a teenage boy. Prepare yourself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote from Avatar: The Last Airbender (2003-08).

Adrien was overwhelmed with emotion when he entered the bus and was bombarded with his classmates’ cheering and welcomes. Despite being a literal celebrity, he had never really found the opportunity to bond with anyone other than Nino, and less so with Alya and Marinette. 

To see so many people invested in his happiness made his heart warm and his stomach flutter pleasantly with ladybugs. Honestly, he was starting to get choked up.

“Adrien, dude, are you  _ crying? _ ” 

Sniffling and rubbing at his eyes with his sleeve, Adrien gave a hoarse, “No,” causing everyone to laugh and lightly tease him as he sat down in the middle of the bus where some computer monitors and many wires were haphazardly thrown about. Looks like the plan to get him some vacation time was a lot messier than he thought. 

As everyone sat down and AU!Kim pulled the bus out onto the street (where did he get a bus driving license?), everyone settled down to pick up the last of their group before the long drive to the beach. 

“I don't know how you did it, man, but you must have massive balls to blackmail Gabriel Agreste  _ and _ get away with it.” Nino threw an arm around AU!Adrien's shoulders and ruffled his hair. “Major props, dude!”

AU!Adrien laughed. “Don't let me take all the credit. I wouldn't have been able to do any of that if Marinette wasn't the head of operations.” 

Said girl was bashfully rubbing the back of her head and giggling nervously. Adrien thought it was the cutest thing ever. But he always thought she was cute, so maybe she was just cuter than normal? 

“Anything for Adrien,” she explained, until she froze up and looked like she regretted saying that, which was a shame because Adrien really appreciated the sentiment. “I mean, Adrien is everything. No! Adrien deserves anything. Well, not  _ anything _ but he's great so he should have lots of things…?”

Saving Marinette from her floundering, Alya wrapped an arm around her best friend's shoulders while AU!Marinette playfully punched her arm from Marinette's other side. 

“This one's so modest,” AU!Marinette joked. “Everyone back at home knows how entitled I feel to credit I deserve.” 

AU!Adrien hummed as he leaned into his girlfriend's face. “I dunno, Princess.” He brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes and tucked the lock behind her ear, giving Adrien a clear view of her black earring. “You do pretty amazing things that a lot of people don't know you do.”

AU!Marinette giggled and pecked her boyfriend on the lips before pushing his face away. “You’re so sappy.”

Turning away from the loving scene in front of him, Adrien looked to Marinette. “I’m really grateful for what you did though, Marinette,” he earnestly said. “I don’t have any idea how to thank you.”

Surprisingly enough, Marinette just gave him a warm smile as she shook her head and said, “You don’t have to do anything, Adrien. We’re friends, aren’t we? We’d all do it again in a heartbeat.”

This girl.

Adrien wanted to grip at his chest for how rapidly his heart was beating. He’d always known but why didn’t he ever  _ see _ it before? There weren’t many people who could match Marinette in how amazing she is. Only Ladybug could compare, really.

Catching a glimpse of Marinette’s earring when she turned her pinkening face away and seeing how similar to AU!Marinette’s earring it was, Adrien felt himself hope some more.

_ Please, let it be Marinette, _ he begged silently.  _ She’s too perfect not to be. Please. _

Looking back to the couple that was still bantering, Adrien thought his chances were looking pretty good.

***

One stop to pick up their remaining classmates and two hours later, AU!Kim was pulling into the parking lot of the beach. 

“Race you guys to the water!” Kim whooped as he shed his clothing down to his swimming trunks before he even got off the bus. 

AU!Kim responded by leaping out of the driver’s seat and doing the same, leaving the bus running in his haste to win. 

Quickly turning off the ignition, AU!Max loudly scolded his friend, even though the other boy probably couldn’t hear him any longer. 

Everyone else followed suit at a much slower pace, gathering their bags, beach umbrellas, food and coolers. Adrien and most of the other boys were ready to go before the rest so they left the bus first to find a decently sized spot on the beach so the group wouldn't be too spread out. It took less than a minute for the small group to go around a bunch of trees to have a clear view of the ocean. 

“Wow,” Adrien breathed, stopping in his tracks. “It's beautiful.”

The day was a blisteringly hot one for the beginning of the season but with the sun out and the skies clear, the waters were free to sparkle a clear crystal blue out to the horizon. Seagulls squawked from above and flew in large flocks in the distance while children chased the ones sitting in the warm white sand. Many people littered the expanse of the beach and dozens more strolled up and down the boardwalk along the water and the sidewalks behind them that bordered the sand and the pavement to the street. 

When Adrien looked back to the water, he saw the two Kims with their arms around each other’s shoulders as they limped back to the group of boys. 

“Let me guess,” said Max, crossing his arms sternly. “You both got a cramp in your foot.”

The Kims just sighed and nodded their heads. Most of the others just laughed as they finished laying beach blankets down and unfolding umbrellas. AU!Adrien clapped his hands together, getting everyone’s attention and motioning for them to huddle in a circle. 

“What’s up, dude?” AU!Nino questioned from beside his friend. 

Panning his gaze over everyone before finally landing on Adrien, AU!Adrien said in a serious tone, “We have one more mission to complete before the end of our trip, gentlemen.”

_ Oh no, _ Adrien thought.  _ Don’t tell me…  _

“We’re gonna help our man, Adrien freaking Agreste, get the girl!”

Fixing his glasses, Max automatically replied, “Considering Ladybug is not on this trip with us, I assume the girl is Marinette?”

It didn’t escape Adrien how all of the AU boys avoided making eye contact with Max, which was further proof that they were aware that AU!Marinette was AU!Ladybug. Adrien was so sure his twin was just messing with him when he told him how hopeless he was at keeping his identity secret. 

Adrien then realized the rest of what Max had said.

“Hold up!” he exclaimed. “How did you know about Marinette?” Adrien himself only realized his budding crush on her a day ago!

The normally silent Ivan piped up. “You just told us.”

Gaping, Adrien couldn’t come up with a response as Nathaniel spoke up next.

“If we’re supposed to be Adrien’s wingmen, I hope the plan isn’t too complicated. I still want to have fun today.”

The redhead didn’t  _ sound _ irritated, but by his wording, Adrien hoped Nathaniel didn’t still have a crush on Marinette. That would make things so awkward, and he really didn’t need more of that in his life.

AU!Adrien straightened his posture and smirked. “Don’t worry about that. I’m no Marinette, so we’re just going to  _ wing _ it.”

As mortified as he was that all these guys were going to help him pick up a girl, Adrien high-fived his twin in appreciation of the pun while the others slapped their faces or groaned. 

Slinging an arm around Adrien’s shoulders, Nino gave his full support. “Of course I’ll help my best bro! It’s about time you finally went for the amazing girl who’s been in front of you this whole time!”

“I’m not one for matchmaking, but I’ll help when I can,” added AU!Max as his counterpart nodded from beside him.

“I already got some great ideas,” said Kim, looking pumped.

“Not as great as mine!” AU!Kim immediately retaliated. Oh, wonderful, it seemed Adrien’s love life was about to become a competition.

Feeling a reassuring hand on his shoulder, Adrien turned to AU!Nino, whose smile was subdued but still encouraging. Adrien smiled back in thanks and the guys dispersed from their huddle to go back to doing their own thing as the girls began to arrive. 

“Dude, come sit down. You’re making the rest of us normal guys look bad.” AU!Nino exclaimed from where he sat beside Adrien, having started on unpacking some sandwiches. Adrien looked up at his counterpart who was still standing, a hand in the pocket of his cargo shorts as he took a gulp from his bottle of ice cold Cola, his unbuttoned shirt fluttering in the breeze along with the ends of his thin scarf that was tied around one of his biceps. Adrien narrowed his eyes. The guy looked like he was posing without knowing it. Did Adrien do that, too?

“Nino’s right, babe!” a voice from behind him joked. “How am I going to ogle all the other hot guys at this beach with you in the way?”

AU!Adrien lowered his drink as he moved his aviator sunglasses from his eyes to the top of his head. Based on the movement of his eyes, Adrien could tell his twin was drinking in the sight of his girlfriend as if he were the thirstiest man alive, despite having just drank half the bottle in his hand. AU!Adrien smirked when it seemed he was done. “Something tells me you don’t really mind, Princess.”

Hearing the light footsteps pass by him, Adrien glanced to the side as he watched AU!Marinette approach her boyfriend, and damn. He was left speechless.

AU!Marinette (who was physically the same person as Marinette), wore a tasteful black bikini that was patterned with crisscrossing lime green lines. Wrapped around her hips was a short cover up wrap that was mostly black until it made a bubbling pattern over more lime green, giving the impression of Chat Noir’s Cataclysm. The destructive superpower wasn’t one to be messed around with, but wow, it looked  _ hot _ in that moment.

Placing his hands on her waist, AU!Adrien asked, “Where’d you get this? Didn’t think you had time to look for something so specific in day.”

Adrien didn’t miss the quick glance AU!Marinette gave him. Taking AU!Adrien’s sunglasses and putting them over her own eyes, she gave an impish smile and said, “Marinette made this a while back.”

Adrien choked. She  _ made _ a Chat Noir themed bikini?! Dear gods above, then what could  _ Marinette  _ possibly be wearing? 

Unaware of Adrien’s internal struggle, AU!Adrien pecked his girlfriend on the forehead and replied with, “I hope you made one back at home,” before he looked over her head to make eye contact with Adrien, raising an eyebrow and subtly nodding for him to look behind himself. 

Without thinking, Adrien did just that and twisted his torso so he could look around before he froze. Walking towards him as she conversed with Alya was an image of pure beauty. Dainty feet clad in black lace-up flat sandals were attached to long pale shapely legs that led to the top of thighs that were slightly covered by a sheer black swimsuit coverup over a dark red one piece with strings that criss-crossed over her—Adrien dryly swallowed—over her chest but leaving enough skin exposed for him to see the few freckles that spread under her collarbone. Moving up the pale column of her neck, Adrien lingered a while on her mesmerizing pink lips before drifting to her rosy cheeks that were flushed from the heat until he reached her striking bluebell eyes. Eyes that widened considerably when they made contact with his. 

Adrien was pleased to see how prominent the girl’s freckles became when her blush reached all the way to the strings of her swimsuit. 

He was startled out of his daze when AU!Nino snapped his fingers in front of Adrien’s face. Blinking rapidly and looking around, Adrien was embarrassed to see Marinette, Alya, Nino and AU!Nino all staring at him. 

Placing a hand on her hip, Alya raised an eyebrow and asked, “So did we go through all that trouble to get you out of your photoshoots just so you could pose at the beach?”

Looking down at himself, Adrien realized that he had done the exact same thing he almost criticized AU!Adrien for. “Uh, it’s just a habit?” he tried.

Alya humorously scoffed as the Ninos both outright laughed at him. Adrien chuckled along until he made the mistake of looking up at Marinette again. The girl herself seemed to be a deer in headlights and Adrien really, really tried to stop looking at her so creepily, but man it was difficult. Hoping to ease her and not scare her away so early, he quickly stood up and frantically searched for something to say, blurting out the first thing that came to mind. Seeing familiar Ladybug colors on Marinette’s familiar form made his heart pound faster at the evidence that kept racking up.  _ Those colors suit you, _ he wanted to say. “Ladybug suits you,” he said instead. 

Marinette’s eyes somehow got wider. 

“Wow, bro,” AU!Nino cut in loudly. “Just because she’s wearing red and black doesn’t automatically mean it’s Ladybug-inspired, y’know.”

Alya, none the wiser, laughed at that. “I’m actually guilty of doing that sometimes. I see black on red and I think, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Ladybug!’ until I realize there weren’t even spots.”

Adrien glanced at AU!Nino and silently thanked him. That could have been a disaster. 

The girls settled down on a blanket next to the boys, Marinette a bit stiffly, and took out sunscreen that they had to rub on. AU!Marinette joined them and motioned for AU!Adrien to help her get the spots on her back that she couldn’t reach, to which the boy enthusiastically agreed to. He gave Adrien a pointed look as he sat down to help his girlfriend. 

Looking at the others, Adrien saw that Alya already had Nino helping her while AU!Nino had disappeared, leaving Marinette on her own. Taking a deep breath, Adrien squared his shoulders before he shuffled over and plopped himself down next to Marinette, effectively startling her and causing her to squeeze the bottle she was holding too hard and squirt the sunscreen lotion all over her front. Neither of them moved for a short second as they stared at the mess before Adrien grabbed a towel and threw it at her face. He shot up from the sand and tried to speed walk away, deciding he needed to cool down in the ocean, preferably forever. 

Unfortunately, AU!Adrien caught onto his ankle as he passed him, causing Adrien to fall face first into the sand. “Oops,” Adrien heard him say in a very  _ un _ apologetic tone, “didn’t see you there. Marinette, you should check and see if he’s okay.”

Lifting his face from the ground and brushing all the sand off, Adrien heard Marinette’s meek, “Okay,” and gratefully accepted her help in getting up. Going back to their previous spot on the blanket, Adrien relented and decided to try again. 

“I’m alright,” he assured Marinette at her concerned gaze. “I’ve had harder falls. But thanks for the help. Maybe I could repay you by helping you with the sunscreen?” Giving her a discreet once over, Adrien was relieved to see she had cleaned up all the sunscreen from before. 

She blinked at him in surprise. “Oh, uh, well, y’know with my clumsiness, and earlier, I got a lot more than I needed.” 

Adrien nodded quickly in agreement. “Right. Yeah. Of course.”

Silence fell between them, both of them looking anywhere but each other and searching for things to say.

“Um,” Marinette began, “I could do you?”

Adrien’s eyes shot to hers. She seemed to realize what she said. “I-I mean, not  _ do you _ , like, like  _ that _ obviously, but do the—the thing! Sunscreen! Do! It! On you!” She slapped her face and groaned. “You know what I mean.”

Wanting desperately to save her, and himself, from the awkwardness, Adrien agreed. “Sure! I probably should have done this ages ago. My dad would kill me if I came home with tan lines.” Wow! Actual sentences! 

With a bit of awkward shuffling, Marinette sat behind Adrien so she could prepare to rub sunscreen on his back (good lord, it was happening!) and Adrien braced himself once he slipped his t-shirt over his head, anticipating her touch on his bare back. And when she finally did place her warm palms on the back of his shoulders, he tried his hardest to suppress a pleasant shiver. 

Honestly, Adrien would have been content if he spent the entire day just sitting under the cool shade of the umbrella and letting Marinette move her soft yet firm hands all over his back. Maybe in other places, too… 

Of course, that was when one of his “wingmen” decided to put his plan into action.  

“Listen up, kiddos!” Kim announced, hands on his hips in a hero pose. “It’s time we figure out just who should be the King and Queen of the beach nets!”

“Nah,” Alix quickly shut him down. She jabbed a thumb in AU!Alix’s direction as she tightened the straps of her roller blades. “Me and Double over here are gonna race down the beach strip.”

“Besides,” Juleka added, “why is it a King and a Queen? Why not Queen and Queen? Or King and King?”

Kim visibly slumped, clearly disappointed that the others, not including his counterpart, did not share his enthusiasm. The Kims had been so stoked to get a game started that they had set up a net and boundaries already. Adrien felt just a tad sorry for them. But if this was part of Kim’s plan, then maybe Adrien should invite Marinette to be his partner? Would Marinette even want to play?

Before he could make a decision, AU!Marinette popped up from her spot, AU!Adrien getting up more slowly beside her. “We’ll play you, Kim.”

Adrien had expected both Kims to be happy to finally have a challenger, but was completely blindsided by how ashen AU!Kim became. The laughter from some of the other AU people was also unexpected. AU!Kim grasped his twin’s shoulders. “Just a warning now, man. If you play against these two, you have to play  _ hard _ . You’ll be destroyed if you don’t.”

Kim scoffed as he sized up his opponents, who had walked up to them with unassuming smiles. “Please. Pretty boy and the little cupcake fairy can’t be too hard to beat.”

AU!Alix crossed her arms and laughed. “Now this, I’ve got to see. Believe me, it’s going to be awesome,” she said to Alix. All their classmates in the vicinity began to show interest in the upcoming match, even AU!Chloe who had been sunbathing on a beach towel on her own a ways from the main group. 

“Something tells me they all know something that we don’t,” Nino said from beside Adrien.

Alya pulled out her phone and started recording. “Whatever it is, I sure as hell ain’t gonna miss it!” 

Marinette had also paused in her task to watch, though kept her hands on Adrien’s shoulders, to the boy’s delight.

Back at the net, AU!Adrien smoothly removed his open shirt and tossed it to the side, causing a passing group of girls to giggle and squeal. Eyeing her partner with an amused look, AU!Marinette slipped her cover up wrap off her hips and used it to tie up her hair, creating a stylishly messy ponytail in one uninterrupted movement before flicking her hair over her shoulder, removing her sunglasses and winking at a group of guys who were gawking at her from afar. Adrien couldn’t blame them. The girl was quite a sight when the whole bikini was revealed. And it was  _ Chat Noir themed _ . He was never going to get over that! 

The two teams went to their places and got ready. Markov, wearing a little umbrella hat under his little propellor (was that necessary for a robot? Adrien didn’t think so, but he had to admit it was cute), declared himself the referee. Points were awarded when the ball hit the sand whether in or out of bounds to the respective team, but other than that, anything goes. Best two out of three. The four of them agreed to the rules and with that, Kim served and the game was on.

For the first two sets, it seemed that both teams were evenly matched. Perhaps it was because they were counterparts, but the two Kims worked in great synchronization, as if they always knew what the other was thinking. They never ran into one another and words were hardly spoken the more focused they got in the game. Their flawless teamwork gave them the first set with only the slightest struggle. On the other side of the net, it was even more interesting to watch. Adrien would never have thought he would see himself move so fluidly with another person that technically wasn’t Ladybug, especially with that person being Marinette. It was a given that Ladybug and Chat Noir made the perfect team when they were suited up and given the extra boosts of strength and mobility, but to see the duo accomplish similar feats as civilians was nothing short of astounding. 

It was halfway into the second set when Adrien observed this. Something shifted in the pair’s demeanor, and the Kims began to noticeably struggle. AU!Adrien easily received every ball that came his way and AU!Marinette would set it perfectly for her partner to deliver a killer spike and vice versa. The Kims couldn’t manage to score from that point on and quickly lost the second match. 

AU!Max adjusted his glasses. “It’s over.”

“But there’s still an entire set left,” Rose said, confused.

AU!Max shook his head. “You all saw it just now. Adrien and Marinette just got serious.”

“ _ Just _ got serious?” Nino exclaimed. “Those two look like they’re part of the Olympic team!”

“Maybe they are?” Alya questioned, looking to AU!Max for an answer. All he did was shrug.

“Not that I’m aware of.”

Adrien chanced a look at Marinette, who had moved to sit beside him at some point. He suspected that part of the duo’s skill came from being superheroes, but he knew firsthand that he couldn’t do what they did as plain old Adrien. And Marinette herself was normally clumsy and didn’t show herself to be anything other than average in physical capability. Unless… Adrien furrowed his brows, thinking deeply. He had never  _ tried _ to do anything special as Adrien. And, if Marinette was Ladybug, perhaps she never tried either. Had they been hindering their own growth all this time? 

“Let’s begin the third and final set,” Markov’s voice broke through Adrien’s thoughts. He hadn’t noticed before, but quite a large crowd had gathered around to watch the volleyball match. The new spectators were equally split between drooling guys and squealing girls who all stood under the same cloud of disappointment when AU!Adrien and AU!Marinette gave each other a quick smooch right before the set began. Adrien sighed. Those two really knew how to rile people up. Thankfully, Adrien was starting to get used to it and learning not to view them as himself and Marinette. They and all the other AU people were starting to seem like their own person.

Feeling eyes on him, Adrien turned his head and met gazes with Marinette, who was blushing prettily as she quickly looked away. It didn’t mean Adrien wasn’t a little envious of his twin, though. 

AU!Marinette tossed the ball up and leapt high to serve it. What no one expected was for her to twist in midair and kick the ball over the net, leaving the Kims no chance at saving the rally. 

“Holy shit,” muttered Alya, which captured everyone’s sentiments exactly. 

And it didn’t stop there. Even if the Kims were able to shake off the initial serve and could deliver the ball back over the net, the couple showed them absolutely no mercy. At one point, AU!Adrien set the ball up high before quickly turning around and lacing his fingers together so AU!Marinette could step into his hands. He launched her into the air where she executed the same kick as before, sending the ball into a deadly spike that buried it under the sand at AU!Kim’s feet. AU!Marinette landed in the sand in a crouch before she stood up and pounded her fist with AU!Adrien’s as they had just scored the winning point.

The whole beach seemed silent for a long moment before everyone erupted into cheers. 

“Dude, that was insane!” Nino yelled in Adrien’s ear. 

“I almost don’t believe that happened,” Marinette whispered in awe.

Dropping her phone in her lap, Alya deeply exhaled. “Same here, girl. And I have actual proof of it.” 

“Unless anyone wants to challenge us, I guess that makes us King and Queen of the beach. Is that right, Kim?” AU!Marinette declared as she rested her elbow on her boyfriend’s shoulder. 

“What’d I tell you?” AU!Kim comfortingly patted his twin on the back. The other boy just dropped to the sand in exhaustion.

Adrien chewed his lip as he debated whether or not to try. Turning to Marinette, he asked, “Do you wanna give it a go?”

The girl quickly paled, looking at him horrified. “And embarrass myself when I get my butt kicked? No thank you!”

Adrien tried to smile reassuringly. He was sure it came out as a crooked grin instead. “C’mon, Marinette, you’re amazing. I think you’ll do just fine.”

Marinette simply eeped and muttered something unintelligible but sounded like, “You’re amazing, too,” making Adrien smile widely. 

AU!Marinette walked over to the group carrying AU!Adrien on her back, the both of them laughing carefreely. “It’s okay if you don’t want to play volleyball,” the girl said as she dropped her boyfriend on the sand like a sack of potatoes, gaining an indignant shout that she ignored. “We can do a sand castle competition instead!”

Alya snorted. “If we do that, I say we make it girls vs. boys. You Maris are super artistic and AU!Mari here seems a little competitive.”

AU!Marinette rubbed the back of her head and laughed sheepishly. “Is it that obvious?”

Everyone collectively said, “Yes.”

AU!Adrien got up off the ground and brushed the sand off his shorts. “But I wanted to do a 2 vs. 2 vs. 2,” he complained. He pulled AU!Marinette to his side. “Mari and I, we’re an unstoppable team.” 

Alya stood up, pulling Marinette up with her. She then grabbed AU!Marinette from AU!Adrien and threw her arms around the two girls’ shoulders. “Exactly. I’m going to take as many advantages as I can get. We’ll have twenty minutes to build the best sand castle. Good luck boys!” And with that she tore off down the beach to the water where all the wet sand was, easily dragging the Maris along without warning, leaving said boys to watch them go.

“Well that plan is a bust,” AU!Adrien eventually said. “Sorry, man.”

Adrien shrugged. “I’m not sure if I’m even making any progress.” He sighed. “Why is it so difficult? Does she not like me?”

He missed the look AU!Adrien and Nino gave each other. AU!Adrien grasped the boy’s shoulder. “You just have to keep trying.”

“No one said love was easy, bro,” Nino added, very unhelpfully.

Adrien anticipated this was going to be a frustrating day.

***

“Sorry, boys,” Rose said. “The girls win this one, hands down.”

“The girl’s castle looks way cooler,” commented Ivan.

Mylene took pictures of Alya, Marinette and AU!Marinette posing next to their massive and highly detailed sand fortress. “I really love all the colors.”

Adrien liked to think the girl’s castle only looked so impressive because it sat right next to the boy’s mediocre attempt at a basic design. They had tried, they really did. But it gave Adrien the perfect opening.

Stepping over to Marinette, he suavely placed a hand on the sand wall by her head and leaned in a little close as he said lowly, “You did an incredible job with this Marinette. What can’t your hands do?”

Marinette’s eyes went wide and Adrien noticed her swallow as he realized what he had said. Before he could regret it though, he felt the sand give under his hand and the whole structure collapsed before their eyes. 

As everyone tried to comfort Alya when she bemoaned the loss of her “kickass dream palace,” Adrien stood to the side glaring at his hysterically laughing kwami. 

“That was like, that was like,” Plagg said breathlessly, “it was like Cataclysm but it was just bad luck! Your own luck is cockblocking you! Bwahahahaha! What can’t  _ your hands _ do?!”

Adrien felt mild satisfaction as he shoved the tiny god into the sand.

***

“I’ve always wanted to make sand mermaids with my friends,” Nathaniel piped up. “It’s kinda childish but it’s a fun artsy thing to do.”

AU!Chloe pushed her way into the center of the group and plopped herself down on the sand. “I’m obviously going to be one of those mermaids.”

Nino joined her. “Make me a merman!”

The girls giggled at him, but they all set to work making two holes in the sand. Nathaniel lightly shoved Adrien forward. “If we’re making mermen, we should have the actual model be one, too.”

“In that case, Marinette can also be a mermaid!” AU!Marinette suggested. She didn’t notice how Nathaniel faltered. 

“Er, yeah. Marinette would make a very pretty mermaid.”

Alya narrowed her eyes at him. “You sound like you don’t really believe that.”

Nathaniel threw his hands up. “No, really! It was just unexpected! I’m all for gender equality and the four of them are perfect for mermaids and mermen!”

Hoping to save the poor boy from Alya’s unnecessary wrath, Adrien stepped forward and prompted everyone to start. “I’ve never done this before either so I can’t wait to see what it looks like!”

He sat himself between Nino and AU!Chloe and looked up to see Nathaniel discreetly slap himself in the face. Catching his eye, Adrien raised a questioning brow. Nathaniel responded by looking pointedly at Marinette, who seated herself on AU!Chloe’s other side. Realization dawned on Adrien and he refrained from groaning in exasperation. 

Nathaniel had hoped for Marinette to help turn Adrien into a merman so they could be in close proximity. When that didn’t work, Nathaniel thought Adrien would sit next to Marinette when neither of them could move away for the next while. Shaking his head, Adrien couldn’t believe he messed even that up. Now, if he wanted to talk to Marinette, he would have to deal with AU!Chloe between them. 

Speaking of AU!Chloe, she began talking up a storm as soon as Marinette sat down beside her. 

“I’m going to commission you to make some outfits for the other me. She clearly isn’t up to date on your talents and this will be the best way to do it. Now, I know you probably don’t have the funds for the quality of material I’m asking for so we’re going to do things the way Mari and I do it back at home.”

The girl just continued on without stopping as Marinette just nodded along, looking a little bewildered at the request that came out of nowhere. Meanwhile, everyone who was present was having a blast throwing sand at their models’ legs and throwing sand at each other. 

Needless to say, Adrien discovered how much fun making a sand fishtail could be, but in exchange he couldn’t get even a single word to Marinette. 

He sighed and gave a defeated smile. Might as well join in on his classmates’ fun until he could escape from the sand. After all, he still had all day to woo Marinette.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I have the most fun writing in Adrien's POV. I totally have no clue as to why. 
> 
> If you're as big of a fan of ATLA as I am, you know exactly which character says that quote in which episode in which context. 
> 
> Next up, we're going to see more of the kids' beach trip, this time from Marinette's POV! (Oh lord, I hope I'm not disappointing anyone so far.)


	8. “Don’t let your dreams be dreams. Yesterday, you said tomorrow…You should get to the point…No, what are you waiting for? Do it! Just! DO IT!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part two of the beach episode. Here, have some bumbling teens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote by Shia LaBeouf.

Something weird was going on. Marinette just couldn’t put her finger on it.

Every time she felt she was getting close, she’d be once again knocked away by the sight of the Adonis that kept looking in her direction. _Why was Adrien looking at her?!_

Did someone tell him that she designed and made her and AU!Marinette’s swimsuits and he was now silently critiquing her work with the knowledge he probably soaked up throughout his years of modelling? Was he going to tell his _father_ that Marinette’s ideas were not up to par with the _Gabriel_ standards and was now thinking of the best way to break that news to her?

Marinette pulled her cover up over her head and sipped sadly at her coconut water as she watched her counterpart make a sandman (like a snowman, but with sand) with her boyfriend. Maybe if she could just _ignore_ the toned tanned half-naked body of her long-time crush and his potential judgments, she could survive the day.

“Hey, there. You from around here?”

Turning her head, Marinette was met with the charming smile of a boy she’d never met before.

Oh, great, strangers were hitting on her now. Where was Alya when Marinette needed her? And Marinette couldn’t really do anything unless he started getting into her personal space.

“No, actually, just on vacation with my friends.”

Running a hand through his brown hair, the boy sat himself beside Marinette on the beach blanket. “Ah, let me guess. You’re from the big city of love?”

And there it was.

“Paris really is the City of Love, isn’t it? Even someone like me could find love there,” replied Marinette as she placed her coconut down between them along with a plate of sandwiches, hoping he’d get the hint.

He didn’t.

“Someone like you could find love anywhere, even here,” the boy responded.

Marinette leaned away. “That’s not really needed. I’m sorry, but I already have someone—”

“Hey, Princess, ready to go in the water?”

At the hard voice that came from behind her, Marinette froze. What was Chat doing here?

The boy turned around his eyes widened at who he saw. Marinette wanted to hit her head against something. Don’t tell her that Chat appeared so far from Paris in his _suit_! The boy quickly looked between Marinette and person behind them before he got up and smiled apologetically. “Sorry, Sweetheart, didn’t think you’d be here with someone like him.” With that, he rapidly turned and walked away.

Marinette whipped around. “Cha—!” She cut herself off when she realized the person standing behind her was _not_ the Parisian hero. “A-Adrien!”

Said boy sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, which caused his abs to flex deliciously. _Focus, Marinette! He’s saying something,_ she silently scolded herself.

Not quite looking her in the eye, he explained, “I saw you looking kinda uncomfortable with that guy there so I thought I’d come and help.”

“Oh.” Marinette would never stop being surprised at how thoughtful this boy was. “Thank you! He wasn’t being too much of a bother, but I really appreciate it.”

Adrien sat in the spot the other boy previously took and grabbed a sandwich from the plate, but didn’t eat it, instead just staring at it in his hands. “So,” he began, “I heard you tell him that, uh, there was someone you…” He trailed off, but Marinette caught on to what he was asking.

She looked away and began to play with the hair framing her face, hoping he wouldn’t see how nervous she had become. “I didn’t finish saying, but yeah, there’s someone who…who I like.” She shyly peeked at Adrien and met his gaze, hoping he got her message but at the same time hoping he never found out.

Fortunately or not, Adrien seemed completely oblivious. He visibly deflated, which surprised Marinette. “I see.” Was Adrien _disappointed_ at the thought of her having a crush?

“Um, I mean, he’s really great! And, and I love how he’s so kind with everyone he meets, even with the worst type of people who don’t deserve his kindness. And he doesn’t let his opinions of people cloud his judgment because he always gives them a chance to redeem themselves.” Wait, shit, no! This just made Adrien look even sadder! “But I can’t ignore his looks either. His sunshine blond hair and emerald green eyes! Really it’s just a bonus to match his beautiful personality! His sense of humor isn’t anything to scoff at either.”

As handsome and sexy as he was, Marinette kind of wanted to shove his face in the sand for not getting that she was actually confessing to him.

“He’s someone I can count on to have my back if all I do is ask,” she finished softly, feeling a bit dejected. What she didn’t expect was for Adrien to have this look of dawning realization before smiling warmly.

“Oh, I think I know who you’re talking about now,” he said.

Marinette’s heart skipped a beat. Did he finally realize? She started to slowly smile back at him.

“Chat Noir is a pretty swell guy, isn’t he?”

Her smile froze. _What._

Adrien patted her on the shoulder in a decidedly platonic way. “He sets a pretty high bar for the rest of us guys trying to get a girl. But, I think he’d be perfect for you.”

At his friendly wink, Marinette’s eye twitched. He didn’t seem to notice though, as he got up and finally took a bite of his sandwich. “You should come in the water when you’re done, Mari. We can do that rooster or whatever fight with the others!” Walking away, he didn’t see Marinette flop back onto the blanket and groan in exasperation, rubbing her hands over her face.

Tikki chanced popping out of Marinette’s beach bag to comfortingly pat her holder’s cheek. “To be fair, Marinette, it sounded a lot like you were talking about Chat.”

“But he’s not the one I love, Tikki!” she cried.

Tikki giggled. “Are you sure about that? You did once say you’d probably fall in love with him if Adrien wasn’t around. Maybe you just love both of them!”

Sliding her hands down her face, Marinette eyed her kwami. “Why do you sound so happy about that prospect? I really don’t love Chat! At least not like that!”

“Like what?”

Marinette screamed.

“Marinette is super sure that she doesn’t _love_ Chat Noir,” Tikki explained to AU!Adrien, who plopped down in Adrien’s spot and pulled AU!Marinette onto his lap. He grabbed a sandwich slice and held it out for his girlfriend to take a bite before eating the rest himself.

“Oh,” was all he said.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Lay off of her, you two,” AU!Marinette admonished them. “And Mari, even if you don't believe so now, just take some time to think it over,  okay? Give your kitty an honest chance, and if he's really nothing more than a friend to you, then that's that.”

Marinette thought about it. It couldn't hurt to just _consider_ it, right?

She sighed. “I guess. But that doesn’t mean anything right now!” she quickly added, pointing at the others. “It’s bad enough that Adrien thinks I like Chat Noir.”

AU!Adrien choked on his food and started coughing. AU!Marinette thumped him on the back. “Babe, are you alright? I always tell you to stop eating so fast!”

He waved her away, chuckling nervously. “Sorry, bad habit.” He gently moved his girlfriend off his lap as he got up. “I’m gonna grab some water.” He sped away, going in the direction of the actual ocean instead of the cooler with bottled water.

“He’s not normally like that, is he?” Marinette asked her twin.

The girl narrowed her eyes in the direction her boyfriend went. “No, he’s not.”

“Seems like he’s keeping some sort of secret,” Tikki piped up.

Crossing her arms, AU!Marinette smirked. “In that case, it’s just a matter of time before I find out what it is.”

Marinette tapped her chin. “Do you think Adrien is in on it? He’s been acting oddly today.”

Sipping at the rest of Marinette’s coconut water, AU!Marinette pulled the girl up with her. “We’re going to go find out.”

***

“You’re an idiot. I hope you know that.”

Adrien decided long ago he was going to ignore Plagg. After all, it would be weird for supermodel Adrien Agreste to be found talking to his shorts.

“Didn’t peg you for an idiot.,” a different voice said.

Adrien stopped in his tracks, ocean water lapping at his bare feet. He sighed and turned to AU!Adrien, who was looking at him in irritation. “What makes you think that?”

The other boy rolled his eyes. “Just for that, I’m not gonna tell you. Anyway, let’s talk about our plan. Are you working up to asking your Mari out?”

Shaking his head, Adrien answered, “Why bother? She already told me she likes Chat Noir.”

AU!Adrien just stared at him. “Marinette,” he pointed a thumb behind him, “told _you_ ,” he jabbed a finger into Adrien’s chest, “that _she_ likes _Chat Noir_.”

Adrien suddenly felt unsure. “Yes,” he slowly dragged out. His face burned when he heard Plagg’s loud snickers. It didn’t help when AU!Marinette popped out of nowhere with Marinette behind her.

“Hi, boys! What do you say to a chicken fight!”

AU!Adrien perked up. “Yes!”

“Great!” AU!Marinette threw an arm around Adrien and brought him in close. “You’re going down!”

AU!Adrien gaped at his girlfriend in shock before he glared at them. He swept Marinette up into his arms and charge towards the waves, the poor girl yelling at him not to drop her the whole way. They almost ran into Ivan and Mylene who were helping a group of children to fly a ladybug kite. It was Adrien’s turn to gape.

“He just…”

“I’m sorry, Adrien.” Adrien decided that she did _not_ look sorry. “Did you want to team up with Marinette?” The boy just spluttered at the question.

***

When Adrien woke up that morning, he expected to be denied by his father once again and forced to go to a photoshoot. It was completely understandable then, that he was wholly unprepared to have a beautiful girl’s bare legs wrapped around his head by midday on a beach. His teenage mind was ecstatic to have a heavenly experience while his teenage heart was disappointed that the legs did not belong to his Marinette. Not to say that his current situation wasn't feeding his teenage imagination.

“Tighter, Adrien!”

He was going to pass out soon, whether from the leg trap around his neck or the unintentional innuendos, he wasn't quite sure yet.

“Not a chance!” one of the Marinettes yelled back. Communication was pretty shit throughout the whole game because no one ever knew who was yelling at who. Nevertheless, it was the most fun Adrien could say he's had in a long time as a civilian.

“Push at a spot closer to their center of gravity!” he shouted to his teammate as he adjusted his grip on her thighs. “Go for your boyfriend's head!”

“He's not my boyfriend!” came from who he assumed was his Marinette.

“I bet he wants to be,” said AU!Adrien as he bent forward and tilted Marinette towards her counterpart. Adrien nearly slipped and lost his hold on the girl above him. Under the water, he kicked AU!Adrien in the shin.

“Ow! Foul play!”

“Dude!” Adrien hissed when his twin came near. “You’re gonna rat me out!”

AU!Adrien took a hand off of Marinette’s leg to splash some water at Adrien while the girls grappled above them. “When you say it like that, it sounds like you’re up to something suspicious.”

Spitting salty water out of his mouth and now blinded by the water in his eyes, Adrien was not prepared for another two chicken teams to come barrelling through.

“Make way losers!” came one of the Alixes.

“The power couple has split apart! We finally have a chance!” That probably came from AU!Kim.

His beef with his twin temporarily forgotten, Adrien put all his effort in keeping AU!Marinette on his shoulders as they battled against their counterparts and two different Kim-Alix teams. In the end, a giant wave knocked them all down at the same time.

***

The rest of the day passed by with the boys coming up with various attempts to get Adrien and Marinette together while doing as many beach activities as they could. Plagg laughed himself silly at every thwarted plan, either from the pockets of Adrien’s shorts or from right above Markov, as the little robot enjoyed flying up high to observe the seagulls, high enough that Plagg wouldn’t be easily spotted by all the humans.

It was a tough decision, choosing which part was his favorite.

Maybe it was when Ivan gave Adrien a kite so Adrien could pretend to not know how to fly it? It led him to ask Marinette to teach him, only to learn that she couldn’t fly it either. Mylene ended up teaching them both… Separately.

What about that one idea that actually made the most sense, when one of the Maxes suggested sharing an ice-cream. Unfortunately, when Adrien asked Marinette if she wanted to share a cone with him, she had immediately paled and made some half-baked excuse about being lactose-intolerant, despite the fact that everyone had seen her drink milk and eat cream-filled pastries before. Plagg wasn’t an expert on humans, but he was pretty sure the girl was still traumatized from that time years ago with the giant ice-cream man akuma. He really couldn’t imagine why, though. Maybe she associated it with bad memories?

Meh.

How about when AU!Kim suggested Adrien pretend to drown when he was swimming near Marinette? It was probably the dumbest idea out of the bunch, and Adrien actually did start to drown for real, but Marinette did end up giving him CPR. Ah, the look on the kid’s face was priceless when he realized the plan worked, but just a little too well!

As hilarious as it was to watch his holder fail again and again, Plagg wondered why the boy didn’t just ask the girl out. Adrien should have thought about it like cheese.

When you want cheese, but don’t have any cheese, you should ask for it. Simple, no?

Quite proud of the analogy, Plagg floated down to give Adrien his wise advice. Before he could get to the boy sitting under the shade of an umbrella however, he was caught in unyielding feminine hands.

“Hello, Plagg.”

***

Adrien sighed dejectedly as he wrapped his arms around his legs and placed his chin on his knees. He watched Marinette chat with her counterpart from afar, wishing he could casually go over there as if he were AU!Adrien, and just drape an arm around Marinette’s shoulders.

“Hey, man, why the long face?”

Adrien glanced to the side as AU!Nino sat down beside him.

“Hey, I feel like I haven’t seen you all day.”

AU!Nino shrugged noncommittally. “I’ve been around.”

That got Adrien’s attention. He sat up a little straighter in concern. “Is something wrong? If you’re not having fun here, we can walk down the street and find something else to do.”

“Nah, bro, I’m fine.” The boy raised his hands up placatingly. “I’m only feeling a little down because my girl isn’t here with me.”

“Your girl… You mean the Alya from your world?”

“Bingo.”

Adrien frowned. He had almost forgotten that there was a handful of people who were taken from their own world, their own homes and _families,_ and didn’t know when they’d be able to return. What were he and Marinette doing, acting carefree at the beachside when they should be looking for the akuma that started all this? The lack of danger had put them into a sense of security when no one knew what else Doppelgänger was capable of. For the moment, Adrien could do nothing but try and comfort his friend’s twin.

“I’m really sorry, Nino.”

AU!Nino smiled understandingly. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s Hawkmoth’s fault, isn’t it? And you and Ladybug are going to fix it all in the end.”

“I guess…” Adrien sighed. His head then shot up. “I mean, because we’ll all work together to help Ladybug defeat the bad guy.”

AU!Nino laughed. “It’s okay, Other Adrien. I’m pretty sure you’re Chat Noir, but don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

Adrien cringed. “I think I’m starting to get why your Ladybug and Chat couldn’t keep their secrets.”

“Yeah, Adrien and Marinette are kinda a mess sometimes and they're not fooling no one. Speaking of Marinette, or I guess Other Marinette, I see you’ve having a hard time.”

Adrien put two fingers from both hands together. “#thestruggleisreal.”

“#justdoit.”

“#touche.”

“Seriously, man, I think you’ve been going about it the wrong way.”

Raising a brow, Adrien asked, “What do you mean?”

“Why don’t you just focus on being her friend first? I hear you're not good with social cues, but,” he shrugged, “don’t think too hard.” With that, AU!Nino gave him two thumbs up and walked away, joining AU!Chloe and Rose who were doing yoga on the dry warm sand, which, now that Adrien looked closely, was far away from where Nino and Alya were eating ice-cream together.

Adrien pursed his lips and considered what AU!Nino said. It was true that the harder the boys tried, the worse they messed up. Maybe Adrien shouldn't force it. Just be her friend and let it happen. He _was_ Chat Noir after all, and she seemed to really like him. Right.

Adrien nodded to himself with resolve. He could do that.

***

“Guys, don't you think you're being a bit too harsh?”

Tikki and AU!Marinette, who held a death grip on her victim, both gave her a deadpan look.

“Trust me, Marinette. Even if he has nothing to do with this, he probably deserves it anyway,” Tikki said matter-of-factly.

“Damn bug! Why are you always so cruel? Urk!” The black cat-like kwami squeaked when AU!Marinette's hand squeezed his little body. “Listen, I can tell you what you want to know!” he continued frantically, which Marinette wasn't sure why considering he could've easily phased through the other girl's hand.

She took pity on him anyway and pried him from her twin’s grip. Cradling him gently in her open palms, Marinette gazed at the kwami imploringly. “Plagg, right? I heard you like cheese. Would you like some of my parents’ cheese pastries?” Not like she was buttering him up some.

“Sweet, sweet Princess,” Plagg sighed. “I think I'm in love…with cheese! And you too.”

Marinette giggled. “Okay, but first, we want to know what's up with the Adriens.” She then realized something. “Wait! If you're here, that means you're not in Paris, which means Ladybug and Chat Noir are both gone! Don't tell me Chat just happened to come to the beach on the exact same day as us.”

Plagg seemed to look over her shoulder at something and when she turned around she was only met with the overly bright smiles of AU!Marinette and Tikki. Furrowing her brows in confusion, Marinette turned back to Plagg. “So?” she pressed.

The kwami shrugged. “What do you want me to say, Cupcake?”

Marinette inhaled sharply. “Either you've been with AU!Adrien all day or Chat is someone I know _really_ well.”

Plagg shiftily avoided Marinette's eyes. “Who knows?”

Reaching over to the picnic basket and pointedly ignoring the other two’s muffled snickers, Marinette grabbed a cheese danish and held it out to Plagg. “Whatever. It doesn't matter right now. What I _do_ want to know is what AU!Adrien is planning.”

Quickly snatching the pastry in front of him that was easily twice his size, Plagg consumed half the entire thing in one bite with obvious delight. Humming in satisfaction, he absentmindedly replied, “Oh, that. Yeah, the kid's just trying to play wingman. Along with the entire rest of the boys in your class. They're really shit at it.”

“Plagg!” Tikki admonished.

Finishing his treat, Plagg shrugged. “What? It's true. And hilarious to watch, considering Princess Cupcake here already likes the boy.”

AU!Marinette slapped her forehead in aggravation. “I _told_ him we shouldn't interfere, and look what happens,” she muttered.

“Y-you mean…the guys are trying to get me and _Adrien_ together?!” Marinette exclaimed, horrified. “Does Adrien know?!”

“Course he does. Why wouldn't he?” Plagg questioned, completely missing the significance of it.

Marinette squealed and grabbed her twin by the shoulders, shaking her back and forth as she loudly whispered, “That means he likes me!”

“Yeah, okay. Okay!” AU!Marinette frantically agreed, successfully getting Marinette to let go of her. “No need to be so surprised. You're so likable and cute and fun. It was about time he noticed you that way.” She gave Marinette a sly look. “Also helps that you are totally rocking that swimsuit. I'm sure he noticed _that_ as well.”

Marinette put her hands on her cheeks as she felt them heat up. With everything Plagg revealed to them, it made it a huge possibility that Adrien noticed her, and liked her, and liked looking at her too! She stood up abruptly, causing the other three to look at her in varied levels of surprise.

“I'm going to do it!” she declared, not giving the others a chance to ask. “I'm going to flirt and woo Adrien so hard he'll pass out in awe!”

Plagg burst out laughing. “That's no problem! Just let him drown again!

Tikki shoved a cookie in his mouth to shut him up.

***

As carefreeing as it was to float above the little robot and and have a whole view of the beach, Plagg had to admit that it was twice as amusing to hunker down in Marinette’s hair where he could easily blend in with the bouncy messy bun on her head without her knowledge. As the girl strode with amazingly firm confidence towards his holder, Plagg snickered silently to himself at what was sure to be a hilarious show.

“Hey there, hot stuff!”

Adrien, who was in the middle of getting up from a beach chair, jerked in surprise and fell into the chair, causing it to fold up around him. Plagg heard Marinette gasp as she rushed to the boy’s side.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! Here, let me help you.”

Plagg threw his paws over his mouth to keep himself from exploding with laughter.

Once the chair was unfolded and Adrien was standing up without problems, he chuckled and said, “You know, this reminds me of the day we first met.”

Marinette giggled. Plagg wasn’t sure if she was doing it nervously or hysterically. “Oh yeah, the umbrella that closed up on me. I guess that’s one way to catch a girl!”

Oooh, that was actually a pretty smooth line. At least, Plagg thought so. You could probably catch cheese that way too, couldn’t you?

“Ah jeez, I probably made you feel so embarrassed when that happened, didn’t I? I know I’m still feeling mortified about the chair thing just now.”

Plagg shook his head. Adrien completely missed the important part of what she said.

“Oh, it’s fine. Totally fine. Just as fine as you!” Plagg could imagine the twitching smile she sometimes got when he saw her trying to talk to his holder.

Adrien smiled warmly. “I’m glad. I really cherish that memory because that’s when I felt that we really became friends.”

Plagg felt Marinette lower her head before she raised it again. He saw when she stretched out her hand to gently grab one of Adrien’s. “I cherish that day, too. Sometimes when I think about it, I wonder if we can be…more than friends one day.”

Adrien’s eyes widened as he looked at their joined hands. Crawling slowly to the front of Marinette’s hair, Plagg leaned closer to see that Marinette wore a certain charm bracelet on her wrist. One that Plagg would know anywhere from how long he watched Adrien rant about and labor over making it “perfect.”

The boy quickly reached into the pocket of his shorts and pulled out another familiar charm bracelet and immediately put it on his own wrist. Raising his eyes to meet Marinette’s, he softly said, “Marinette, does this mean…”

Plagg felt the girl lean forward.

“…that you’d like to be my best friend one day?”

The kwami groaned loudly and flopped over, which caused him to slip off of Marinette’s head. Catching himself quickly, he floated in the air as he shouted, “Of all the things you could have said!”

Facing Adrien, he was about to continue his complaints when he was snatched out of the air and squeezed just as tightly as before.

Adrien just stared at the two before him.

“This is just a toy! A toy robot! Kinda like Markov but not as intelligent, y’know?”

“Oi!” Plagg cried indignantly. “I’m plenty smart! Five thousand years of knowledge in this little body!”

A snort came from Adrien, but Marinette didn’t seem to notice.

“Shut up, Plagg!” Marinette hissed, completely not being inconspicuous at all.

Adrien raised a finger at Plagg and was about to say something probably really incriminating, but was stopped just in time by a rumbling explosion.

Wow, maybe those charms were lucky after all.

***

Marinette and Adrien sat on a beach towel under the shade of an umbrella, the former feeding her boyfriend blueberries as they watched their counterparts fail at flirting with one another. (It was lucky for Plagg that they couldn’t see his small form from such a distance.)

“This is all your fault,” Marinette commented. “I shouldn’t even be so nice to you right now.”

“Ah, ah, ah, Bugaboo,” Adrien began, “this is _both_ of our faults.”

Throwing a handful of berries at his nose, Marinette huffed and gestured wildly in front of her. “Look at them! They’re a mess!”

The couple was abruptly shoved apart. “I can _easily_ think of two other people who were just like them before they started dating.”

“C’mon, Chlo, we were _fourteen_ !” Adrien whined. “That’s the time in your life when you’re _supposed_ to be awkward!”

“Hm, touche,” Chloe replied as she stole some blueberries for herself. She then glanced behind Marinette. “What a surprise. That Other Marinette really is Ladybug.”

Marinette heard Tikki squeak in shock. Gently picking up the kwami, Marinette placed her next to the bowl of blueberries. “It’s alright, Tikki. Chloe’s in on the secret, remember?” she reassured.

Floating up a bit but staying low, Tikki approached Chloe, staring at the comb in her hair. “She’s not just in on it,” she breathed in wonder. “She’s part of it, too!”

Chloe, for her part, didn’t react much. She merely sat up straighter and lightly flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Take a good look, little kwami. The name’s Queen Bee.”

Surprisingly, Tikki seemed to droop in sadness. “And you’re separated from Pollen, without even a doppelgänger to help you out.”

The girl faltered. “I…”

Adrien cocked his head, his eyebrows furrowing in thought. “Hold up… Chlo… Don’t tell me you got your other self akumatized because you were missing Pollen.”

Chloe pursed her lips and looked away, but she couldn’t get out of the sudden hug that Marinette gave her.

“You should have told us you were hurting, Chloe,” she whispered. It was several seconds later when Marinette heard her friend sigh and she felt Chloe’s arms finally wrap around her.

“If anyone asks, I was showing you a yoga move,” Chloe muttered.

Laughing, Marinette knew this was Chloe’s way of saying thanks. She let go and gave a small smile before looking back to Tikki, who only gazed at them with deep understanding.

It was a sad reminder that Marinette was still separated from her own kwami companion and, by extension, her partner’s, both of whom were very integral in her life since the beginning of her teenage years. It was difficult to imagine how Chloe must feel without a kwami at all to keep her company.

Taking a deep breath, Chloe shook her head. “Other Chloe, she has a long way to go before she can even _touch_ a Miraculous, let alone have one. She can’t even appreciate casual fashion when she literally sees herself wearing it. Imagine what she’ll say about ancient jewelry.”

Rolling her eyes at what was becoming a familiar rant, Marinette went back to feeding her boyfriend the leftover berries before Chloe and Tikki ate them all, this time throwing them into his open mouth as Chloe still sat in between them.

Marinette was quite content to stay there for the time being, as it was only mid-afternoon and the sun was shining as brightly as ever and only the light breeze and the ocean water could naturally keep all the beach-goers cool.

However, with great magical power comes great magical annoyances.

A muscular teen (man?) with a deep tan, wearing a purple speedo, a whistle around his neck, and really ugly silver-white framed sunglasses stepped in front of the three and asked in a demanding voice, “Adrien Agreste?”

Said boy frowned and said, “Yes?”

The guy raised a hand to lift up his sunglasses, which at second glance, Marinette realized slanted upwards at the top, kind of like the wings of…a butterfly…

Tackling the other two as hard as she could, Marinette yelled loudly, “Scatter!” knowing they, and the rest of their original classmates, would know what she meant. She rolled away and leapt to her feet just in time to avoid the shower of sand and broken seashells that erupted like shrapnel from the ground under the previously occupied beach towel.

“What is this, Baywatch?!” Adrien shouted as he ran up next to his girlfriend.

“Yes,” came the akuma, “I am Babewatch. I’m here to get rid of all the so-called ‘hot’ guys that always take the attention of all the babes on the beach.” He pointed at Adrien. “Starting with you, Adrien Agreste.”

Adrien stared at the akuma with a straight face. “Hey, isn’t Hawkmoth the one who names his villains?” he side-lipped to Marinette.

She opened her mouth to say something before realizing that, no, there really was nothing she could say to that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said this part would be in Marinette’s POV, but it gave so much potential for scenes with Adrien’s POV. Something about that boy is so hilarious to write. And Plagg. Oh, my dear, sweet Plagg. I also don’t know what was with all the sad AU people. Maybe that’s what you call an emerging plot. The seed’s been planted and now it’s beginning to sprout above the dirt… 
> 
> I had a different quote with a different plan for this chapter. But then the story began to write itself and I said okay, yeah, go for it. So in the end, my greatest struggle was finding a matching quote for whatever the hell I wrote this time.


End file.
